RPI inflation, 2019 to July 2026
£1,000 in 2019 is £1,451 today
That £1,000 bought 270 pints of lager in 2019. Today it buys 193.
Prices up 45%5.1% a year on averageMultiply by 1.45
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 | 2019 | Today |
|---|---|---|
| pints of lager£3.70 then, about £5.17 today | 270 | 193 |
| first-class stampsoutran inflation70p then, £1.80 today | 1,429 | 556 |
| kg of bananaslagged inflation95p then, about £1.09 today | 1,053 | 917 |
| litres of unleadedlagged inflation£1.25 then, about £1.47 today | 800 | 682 |
| dozen eggslagged inflation£1.95 then, about £2.38 today | 513 | 421 |
| packs of 20 cigarettes£10.77 then, about £17.76 today | 93 | 56 |
| pints of bitter£3.09 then, about £4.07 today | 324 | 246 |
| pints of milk44p then, about 70p today | 2,268 | 1,439 |
| kg of rump steak£14.94 then, about £20.21 today | 67 | 49 |
| boxes of tea bags£2.03 then, about £2.83 today | 493 | 354 |
| nips of whisky£2.96 then, about £4.17 today | 338 | 240 |
| sliced white loaves£1.06 then, about £1.50 today | 943 | 668 |
| kg of roasting chicken£2.75 then, about £4.04 today | 364 | 247 |
| Same money, adjusted for inflation | £1,000 | £1,451 |
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
£215,333 → £278,784
Up 1.3×, against 1.5× for prices generally
Average pay
£27,976 → £39,260
A year's average earnings, up 1.4×
Years of pay for a house
7.7 → 7.1
Average house price divided by average annual pay
If it had tracked wages
£1,403
What £1,000 in 2019 would be today if it had grown with pay rather than prices