pound.one

RPI inflation, 1956 to July 2026

£100 in 1956 is £3,654 today

That £100 bought 500 dozen eggs in 1956. Today it buys 42.

Prices up 3,554%5.2% a year on averageMultiply by 36.54

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

×37 £1 in 1956£36.54 today
It takes 36.5 of today's pounds to match one from 1956
The card that appears when you share this link

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.

Item1956Today
dozen eggslagged inflation20p then, about £2.38 today50042
pints of milklagged inflation3p then, about 70p today3,226144
Same money, adjusted for inflation£100£3,654

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
£1,996 → £278,784
Up 139.7×, against 36.5× for prices generally