CPI inflation, 2018 to August 2026
£1,000 in 2018 is £1,356 today
That £1,000 bought 275 pints of lager in 2018. Today it buys 192.
Prices up 36%3.6% a year on averageMultiply by 1.36
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 | 2018 | Today |
|---|---|---|
| pints of lager£3.64 then, about £5.20 today | 275 | 192 |
| first-class stampsoutran inflation67p then, £1.80 today | 1,493 | 556 |
| packs of 20 cigarettesoutran inflation£10.23 then, about £17.87 today | 98 | 56 |
| pints of milkoutran inflation44p then, about 70p today | 2,268 | 1,429 |
| litres of unleaded£1.25 then, about £1.48 today | 800 | 678 |
| kg of bananas93p then, about £1.10 today | 1,075 | 911 |
| dozen eggs£1.96 then, about £2.39 today | 510 | 419 |
| nips of whisky£2.87 then, about £4.20 today | 348 | 238 |
| kg of roasting chicken£2.82 then, about £4.07 today | 355 | 246 |
| sliced white loaves£1.06 then, about £1.51 today | 943 | 664 |
| kg of rump steak£15.72 then, about £20.33 today | 64 | 49 |
| boxes of tea bags£2.00 then, about £2.84 today | 500 | 352 |
| pints of bitter£3.06 then, about £4.09 today | 327 | 244 |
| Same money, adjusted for inflation | £1,000 | £1,356 |
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
£214,163 → £278,784
Up 1.3×, against 1.4× for prices generally
Average pay
£27,040 → £39,312
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
£1,454
What £1,000 in 2018 would be today if it had grown with pay rather than prices