RPI inflation, 2004 to August 2026
£1,000 in 2004 is £2,258 today
That £1,000 bought 429 pints of lager in 2004. Today it buys 192.
Prices up 126%3.7% a year on averageMultiply by 2.26
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 | 2004 | Today |
|---|---|---|
| pints of lager£2.33 then, about £5.20 today | 429 | 192 |
| first-class stampsoutran inflation27p then, £1.80 today | 3,704 | 556 |
| packs of 20 cigarettesoutran inflation£4.39 then, about £17.87 today | 228 | 56 |
| kg of bananaslagged inflation86p then, about £1.10 today | 1,163 | 911 |
| dozen eggslagged inflation£1.55 then, about £2.39 today | 645 | 419 |
| kg of roasting chickenlagged inflation£2.32 then, about £4.07 today | 431 | 246 |
| litres of unleadedlagged inflation80p then, about £1.48 today | 1,250 | 678 |
| pints of milk35p then, about 70p today | 2,841 | 1,429 |
| pints of bitter£2.02 then, about £4.09 today | 495 | 244 |
| boxes of tea bags£1.39 then, about £2.84 today | 719 | 352 |
| nips of whisky£1.71 then, about £4.20 today | 585 | 238 |
| sliced white loaves64p then, about £1.51 today | 1,563 | 664 |
| kg of rump steak£8.97 then, about £20.33 today | 111 | 49 |
| Same money, adjusted for inflation | £1,000 | £2,258 |
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
£148,658 → £278,784
Up 1.9×, against 2.3× for prices generally
Average pay
£18,980 → £39,312
A year's average earnings, up 2.1×
Years of pay for a house
7.8 → 7.1
Average house price divided by average annual pay
If it had tracked wages
£2,071
What £1,000 in 2004 would be today if it had grown with pay rather than prices