RPI inflation, 1954 to July 2026

£1,000 in 1954 is £40,067 today

That £1,000 bought 3,846 dozen eggs in 1954. Today it buys 421.

Prices up 3,907%5.2% a year on averageMultiply by 40.07

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

It takes 40.1 of today's pounds to match one from 1954

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What £1,000 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	1954	Today
dozen eggslagged inflation26p then, about £2.38 today	3,846	421
pints of milklagged inflation3p then, about 70p today	34,483	1,439
Same money, adjusted for inflation	£1,000	£40,067

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

£1,863 → £278,784

Up 149.6×, against 40.1× for prices generally