RPI inflation, 1953 to July 2026

£100 in 1953 is £4,077 today

That £100 bought 357 dozen eggs in 1953. Today it buys 42.

Prices up 3,977%5.2% a year on averageMultiply by 40.77

Measured with the Retail Prices Index, the only official series that runs back to 1948. Use CPI instead.

It takes 40.8 of today's pounds to match one from 1953

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What £100 buys

Official average shop prices, not a basket. Things marked as outrunning inflation got dearer faster than everything else; things that lagged got relatively cheaper.

Item	1953	Today
dozen eggslagged inflation28p then, about £2.38 today	357	42
pints of milklagged inflation3p then, about 70p today	3,448	144
Same money, adjusted for inflation	£100	£4,077

The ONS stopped publishing these average prices in January 2025. Today's figures are that last reading moved on with inflation, so treat them as close rather than exact.

Houses and wages

Inflation is one story. What people earned, and what a home cost, are the other two.

Average house

£1,884 → £278,784

Up 148.0×, against 40.8× for prices generally