UK Facts
UK Facts takes the numbers people already argue about and shows you what's actually published — so you can correct a claim instead of guessing at it.
The number is usually real. The story around it usually isn’t.
Non-partisan · ONS, OBR, NHS England and official government statistics · retrieval and publication status shown
Inflation ticked back up in July — prices are still rising faster than the Bank’s target
Annual inflation is far below its 2022 peak, but it has not settled at the 2% the Bank of England targets — and it moved the wrong way in the latest month.
Annual rate of change in consumer prices; a falling rate still means prices are rising, just more slowly.
CPI Inflation (annual average %)
The 2022 spike was the worst in 40 years; inflation fell back sharply by 2024 but has crept up again since — it has not returned to the low, stable rates of the 2010s.
View data table
| Year | CPI inflation % |
|---|---|
| 2010 | 3.3 |
| 2011 | 4.5 |
| 2012 | 2.8 |
| 2013 | 2.6 |
| 2014 | 1.5 |
| 2015 | 0 |
| 2016 | 0.7 |
| 2017 | 2.7 |
| 2018 | 2.5 |
| 2019 | 1.8 |
| 2020 | 0.9 |
| 2021 | 2.6 |
| 2022 | 9.1 |
| 2023 | 7.3 |
| 2024 | 2.5 |
| 2025 | 3.4 |
United Kingdom · Source: ONS, Consumer price inflation time series (series D7G7) · series D7G7 · as of 2025 (released 22 July 2026)
Did you know?
Five things about Britain today that are true, sourced, and probably not what you'd assume.
Latest official indicators
▲ and ▼ show whether the number rose or fell against the previous published period — not whether that is good or bad. Hover or tap a figure for the comparison.
See the longer trend →●= retrieved from source API ●= latest verified publication snapshot Trend arrows reflect direction vs prior period
Explore by Topic
Key headline stat shown on each card — click to explore the full data
Economy & Cost of Living
Real wages, inflation, GDP and productivity.
Housing
House prices vs earnings, the rental crisis, and the supply gap.
NHS
Waiting lists, GP access, capacity and funding.
Employment
Employment, unemployment, pay and vacancies with the LFS reliability caveat.
Immigration
The data behind the most contested political topic.
Public Finances
Debt, borrowing, revenue and spending definitions.
Crime
Recorded crime and survey measures answer different questions.
Inequality
Wealth distribution, regional divides, intergenerational gaps.
Manifesto Tracker
What did Labour, the Conservatives, Lib Dems, Reform and the Greens actually promise in 2024? Track their pledges against real data — who is on track, who isn't, and where the gaps are.
View Manifesto Tracker →Before you go
What most people get wrong
Not because they are careless — because the real numbers are rarely the ones that travel. Every figure below is from an official source, and every card links to the working.
What people think
Most benefit spending goes to unemployed people
What the data says
55% goes to pensioners
The State Pension alone is £146.1bn — nearly half of all social security spending. Support for people looking for work is a small fraction of the total.
See where it actually goes →
What people think
Defence spending has risen 53% since 2010
What the data says
In real terms, 5%
Cash spending did rise 53%. Adjusted for inflation it fell nearly a fifth to a 2016/17 low, and took fourteen years to get back to where it started.
See the real-terms line →
What people think
A family on benefits can get thousands a week
What the data says
The cap is £423.46
Totals above that are only possible if a household is legally exempt — and the usual reason is that someone in it is disabled. The number can be real and the framing still wrong.
See how the cap works →
What people think
Benefit fraud is a major drain on the country
What the data says
£6.8bn — against a £59.2bn tax gap
Fraud is real and worth measuring honestly. It is also small beside the tax that goes uncollected. Both figures are official.
Compare the scale →
What people think
8.4 million people are on Universal Credit
What the data says
Only 1.6m must look for work
The largest group — 4.2 million — has no work requirements at all: too ill to work, caring, or already earning. The headline number is true and means something different.
See the breakdown →
What people think
The monarchy pays for itself through tourism
What the data says
Unproven — in both directions
Royal attractions earn real money. Nobody has measured how much tourism would vanish without a working monarchy, and the full public cost is not disclosed either.
See what is known →
Claims that circulate most
Common claims in the media — and what the data actually shows.
These deliberately cut across politics. If every correction pointed the same way, this would be an argument rather than a reference.
Looking past this month’s number
A single month rarely tells you much on its own. These are the same indicators over 10-15 years.
UK GDP Growth (annual %)
Growth has not exceeded 1.5% in any year since 2022.
Explore →
NHS Elective Waiting List — England (millions of PATHWAYS)
The list roughly tripled from 2010 before edging down.
Explore →
UK National Debt (% of GDP, end of financial year)
Debt jumped in the pandemic and has stayed near that level since.
Explore →
One chart on why housing feels unaffordable
Pay and house prices don’t share a unit, so indexing both to their 2010 level shows the gap between them directly — pay has grown a little; prices have grown a lot.
House Prices Have Grown Far Faster Than Pay (index, 2010 = 100)
Real pay is up about 7% since 2010. Average house prices are up nearly 75% over the same period — that gap, not a fall in pay itself, is most of the affordability story.
View data table
| Year | Average house price (index) | Real weekly pay (index) |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 100 | 100 |
| 2011 | 99.4 | 98.6 |
| 2012 | 100.6 | 97.4 |
| 2013 | 105.8 | 96.2 |
| 2014 | 114.2 | 95.7 |
| 2015 | 121.9 | 97.8 |
| 2016 | 128.4 | 99.2 |
| 2017 | 134.2 | 99 |
| 2018 | 136.8 | 99.6 |
| 2019 | 138.1 | 101.2 |
| 2020 | 147.1 | 102 |
| 2021 | 158.1 | 105.3 |
| 2022 | 169.7 | 103.6 |
| 2023 | 165.2 | 103.8 |
| 2024 | 170.3 | 105.9 |
| 2025 | 173.5 | 106.9 |
United Kingdom · Source: HM Land Registry / ONS UK House Price Index; ONS Average Weekly Earnings real terms (series A3WX) · as of 2025 (both series indexed to their own 2010 value = 100)
Claim of the week
“£48,500 for sitting at home.”
A benefits breakdown shared widely on Facebook
The arithmetic may add up; the label does not. £48,500 a year is roughly double the benefit cap, so the household is exempt — and the PIP and DLA in the list are exactly why. Neither is an out-of-work benefit: both cover the extra costs of disability and continue in full when the recipient works. The housing element is rent, which goes to a landlord.
See what the benefit cap actually allows →A national average hides real local difference
Hampshire is this site’s first full local demonstrator — same definitions, same source cards, same comparison rules as the national pages, so a local figure can be checked against the national one honestly.
Hampshire
All 13 authorities — housing, jobs, health, crime, education and council finance, each set against the England figure.
Explore Hampshire →
Compare authorities
Rank all 13 Hampshire authorities on one untruncated scale — with what isn’t comparable flagged before the table, not after.
Compare authorities →
Description is not the whole job
Three of the site’s option pages — what would change the picture, who controls it, and what the trade-offs are.
Build more homes
England has missed its housing target every year for four decades. What the planning system, land banking and local opposition each actually explain.
Read the options →
Current policyThe State Pension cost
About half of the projected rise comes from the triple lock, not ageing alone — a policy choice, not just demography.
Read the options →
External optionClose the tax gap
HMRC estimates £46.8bn a year in tax that should be collected but isn’t — contested options for closing it, each with its own trade-offs.
Read the options →
Latest updates
- NHS waiting list7.33m (End July 2026)released 10 Sept 2026
- Pension Protection Fund — The Purple Book 20252 seriesverified 4 Sept 2026
- Department for Education (DfE) — Apprenticeships — Headline Full year: Starts, Achievements, Participation by Level, Levy, Age, Region, Provider type24 seriesverified 28 Aug 2026
- Department for Education (DfE) — Apprenticeships — Subjects: Starts, Achievements, Enrolments by Detailed level, Degree flag, Std-fwk flag, STEM, SSA T1 and 2, Route6 seriesverified 28 Aug 2026
- Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) — Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES), Chapter 5 — Electricity18 seriesverified 28 Aug 2026
Browse by section
Five questions, one source of truth
Britain today
Economy, housing, jobs, the NHS, crime, education, immigration and inequality — the core numbers, with what they can and cannot tell you.
- Economy & cost of living
- Housing
- NHS & health
- Immigration
Browse Britain today →
Money & government
Public finances, where the money goes, benefits, pensions, defence and the monarchy — who receives public money and what it buys.
- Where public money goes
- Benefits
- Pensions
- Untapped revenue
Follow the money →
Outlook & action
The UK outlook, policy impact, the manifesto tracker, party pages and the polling tracker — analysis, not just reference.
- UK outlook (SWOT)
- Manifesto tracker
- Polling tracker
See the outlook →
Politics & media
Who governs, the electoral system, party funding, media ownership and Brexit — plus claims by politicians and viral accounts, checked against the evidence.
- The current government
- Media ownership
- Brexit: what changed
Explore politics & media →
Local
Hampshire is this site’s first full local demonstrator — all 13 authorities, the same definitions and comparison rules as the national pages.
- Hampshire
- Compare authorities
- Portsmouth
- Southampton
Explore Hampshire →
What kind of site this is
- Non-partisan — no party or political funding
- Based on official published sources
- Independent — reader-supported, not advertiser-funded
- Transparent about uncertainty and data status
- Open to correction, with a public correction history
Read how UK Facts is built, including how AI is used and checked →