RPI inflation, 1959 to July 2026

£100 in 1959 is £3,402 today

That £100 bought 625 dozen eggs in 1959. Today it buys 42.

Prices up 3,302%5.4% a year on averageMultiply by 34.02

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

It takes 34.0 of today's pounds to match one from 1959

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.

Item	1959	Today
dozen eggslagged inflation16p then, about £2.38 today	625	42
pints of milklagged inflation3p then, about 70p today	3,030	144
Same money, adjusted for inflation	£100	£3,402

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

£2,119 → £278,784

Up 131.6×, against 34.0× for prices generally