RPI inflation, 1993 to August 2026
£1,000 in 1993 is £2,996 today
That £1,000 bought 654 pints of lager in 1993. Today it buys 192.
Prices up 200%3.3% a year on averageMultiply by 3.00
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 | 1993 | Today |
|---|---|---|
| pints of lager£1.53 then, about £5.20 today | 654 | 192 |
| first-class stampsoutran inflation20p then, £1.80 today | 5,000 | 556 |
| kg of bananaslagged inflation£1.00 then, about £1.10 today | 1,000 | 911 |
| packs of 20 cigarettesoutran inflation£2.24 then, about £17.87 today | 446 | 56 |
| kg of roasting chickenlagged inflation£2.10 then, about £4.07 today | 476 | 246 |
| pints of milklagged inflation34p then, about 70p today | 2,915 | 1,429 |
| dozen eggslagged inflation£1.10 then, about £2.39 today | 909 | 419 |
| nips of whiskyoutran inflation£1.06 then, about £4.20 today | 943 | 238 |
| boxes of tea bagslagged inflation£1.24 then, about £2.84 today | 806 | 352 |
| kg of rump steaklagged inflation£8.51 then, about £20.33 today | 118 | 49 |
| sliced white loaves55p then, about £1.51 today | 1,818 | 664 |
| litres of unleaded49p then, about £1.48 today | 2,041 | 678 |
| pints of bitter£1.36 then, about £4.09 today | 735 | 244 |
| Same money, adjusted for inflation | £1,000 | £2,996 |
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
£51,211 → £278,784
Up 5.4×, against 3.0× for prices generally
Average pay
£12,402 → £39,312
A year's average earnings, up 3.2×
Years of pay for a house
4.1 → 7.1
Average house price divided by average annual pay
If it had tracked wages
£3,170
What £1,000 in 1993 would be today if it had grown with pay rather than prices