CPI inflation, 2018 to July 2026
£100 in 2018 is £135 today
That £100 bought 27 pints of lager in 2018. Today it buys 19.
Prices up 35%3.6% a year on averageMultiply by 1.35
What £100 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 £5.17 today | 27 | 19 |
| first-class stampsoutran inflation67p then, £1.80 today | 149 | 56 |
| packs of 20 cigarettesoutran inflation£10.23 then, about £17.76 today | 9.8 | 5.6 |
| pints of milkoutran inflation44p then, about 70p today | 227 | 144 |
| litres of unleadedlagged inflation£1.25 then, about £1.47 today | 80 | 68 |
| kg of bananaslagged inflation93p then, about £1.09 today | 108 | 92 |
| dozen eggs£1.96 then, about £2.38 today | 51 | 42 |
| nips of whisky£2.87 then, about £4.17 today | 35 | 24 |
| kg of roasting chicken£2.82 then, about £4.04 today | 35 | 25 |
| kg of rump steak£15.72 then, about £20.21 today | 6.4 | 4.9 |
| sliced white loaves£1.06 then, about £1.50 today | 94 | 67 |
| boxes of tea bags£2.00 then, about £2.83 today | 50 | 35 |
| pints of bitter£3.06 then, about £4.07 today | 33 | 25 |
| Same money, adjusted for inflation | £100 | £135 |
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 1.3× for prices generally
Average pay
£27,040 → £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
£145
What £100 in 2018 would be today if it had grown with pay rather than prices