RPI inflation, 2015 to July 2026
£1,000 in 2015 is £1,621 today
That £1,000 bought 290 pints of lager in 2015. Today it buys 193.
Prices up 62%4.3% a year on averageMultiply by 1.62
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 | 2015 | Today |
|---|---|---|
| pints of lager£3.45 then, about £5.17 today | 290 | 193 |
| first-class stampsoutran inflation63p then, £1.80 today | 1,587 | 556 |
| dozen eggslagged inflation£2.29 then, about £2.38 today | 437 | 421 |
| kg of rump steaklagged inflation£16.35 then, about £20.21 today | 61 | 49 |
| kg of bananaslagged inflation86p then, about £1.09 today | 1,163 | 917 |
| kg of roasting chickenlagged inflation£3.13 then, about £4.04 today | 319 | 247 |
| packs of 20 cigarettesoutran inflation£8.88 then, about £17.76 today | 113 | 56 |
| litres of unleadedlagged inflation£1.11 then, about £1.47 today | 901 | 682 |
| pints of bitterlagged inflation£2.97 then, about £4.07 today | 337 | 246 |
| sliced white loaves£1.04 then, about £1.50 today | 962 | 668 |
| boxes of tea bags£1.89 then, about £2.83 today | 529 | 354 |
| nips of whisky£2.60 then, about £4.17 today | 385 | 240 |
| pints of milk43p then, about 70p today | 2,309 | 1,439 |
| Same money, adjusted for inflation | £1,000 | £1,621 |
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
£193,900 → £278,784
Up 1.4×, against 1.6× for prices generally
Average pay
£25,064 → £39,260
A year's average earnings, up 1.6×
Years of pay for a house
7.7 → 7.1
Average house price divided by average annual pay
If it had tracked wages
£1,566
What £1,000 in 2015 would be today if it had grown with pay rather than prices