CPI inflation, 2016 to July 2026
£1.00 in 2016 is £1.42 today
That £1.00 bought 0.29 pints of lager in 2016. Today it buys 0.19.
Prices up 42%3.4% a year on averageMultiply by 1.42
What £1.00 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 | 2016 | Today |
|---|---|---|
| pints of lager£3.48 then, about £5.17 today | 0.29 | 0.19 |
| first-class stampsoutran inflation64p then, £1.80 today | 1.6 | 0.56 |
| packs of 20 cigarettesoutran inflation£9.30 then, about £17.76 today | 0.11 | 0.06 |
| dozen eggslagged inflation£2.08 then, about £2.38 today | 0.48 | 0.42 |
| pints of milk43p then, about 70p today | 2.3 | 1.4 |
| kg of rump steak£16.29 then, about £20.21 today | 0.06 | 0.05 |
| kg of bananas85p then, about £1.09 today | 1.2 | 0.92 |
| nips of whisky£2.69 then, about £4.17 today | 0.37 | 0.24 |
| sliced white loaves£1.00 then, about £1.50 today | 1 | 0.67 |
| litres of unleaded£1.09 then, about £1.47 today | 0.92 | 0.68 |
| pints of bitter£3.00 then, about £4.07 today | 0.33 | 0.25 |
| boxes of tea bags£1.94 then, about £2.83 today | 0.52 | 0.35 |
| kg of roasting chicken£2.92 then, about £4.04 today | 0.34 | 0.25 |
| Same money, adjusted for inflation | £1.00 | £1.42 |
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
£203,771 → £278,784
Up 1.4×, against 1.4× for prices generally
Average pay
£25,688 → £39,260
A year's average earnings, up 1.5×
Years of pay for a house
7.9 → 7.1
Average house price divided by average annual pay
If it had tracked wages
£1.53
What £1.00 in 2016 would be today if it had grown with pay rather than prices