RPI inflation, 1961 to July 2026

£1,000 in 1961 is £32,564 today

That £1,000 bought 5,882 dozen eggs in 1961. Today it buys 421.

Prices up 3,156%5.5% a year on averageMultiply by 32.56

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

It takes 32.6 of today's pounds to match one from 1961

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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	1961	Today
dozen eggslagged inflation17p then, about £2.38 today	5,882	421
pints of milklagged inflation3p then, about 70p today	30,303	1,439
Same money, adjusted for inflation	£1,000	£32,564

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

£2,464 → £278,784

Up 113.1×, against 32.6× for prices generally