RPI inflation, 1959 to August 2026

£1,000 in 1959 is £34,221 today

That £1,000 bought 6,250 dozen eggs in 1959. Today it buys 419.

Prices up 3,322%5.4% a year on averageMultiply by 34.22

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

It takes 34.2 of today's pounds to match one from 1959

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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	1959	Today
dozen eggslagged inflation16p then, about £2.39 today	6,250	419
pints of milklagged inflation3p then, about 70p today	30,303	1,429
Same money, adjusted for inflation	£1,000	£34,221

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 34.2× for prices generally