In 2006 UK pensions spending was about £88 billion, with old age pensions at £62 billion and sickness and disability at £26 billion. In the early 2010s pensions spending increased strongly, reaching £153 billion in 2016.

Pensions spending moderated in the late 2010s but then exploded in the aftermath of COVID. For the year ending March 2025 pensions spending was £215.9 billion.

In terms of GDP, pensions spending was about 6 percent of GDP in 2006, but then increased to 8.1 percent GDP in 2013, before settling back to 6.8 percent GDP in 2023. For the year ending March 2025 pensions spending was 7.5 percent GDP.

UK Pensions Since World War II

Chart S.43t: UK Pensions Since 1947

After World War II pensions spending was about 2 percent of GDP and, beginning in the mid 1950s started a rapid growth, hitting 3 percent of GDP in 1061 and 4 percent GDP in 1973.

Pensions spending peaked at 5 percent GDP in 1983, and then declined to 4.2 percent GDP in 1990 before jumping to over 5 percent GDP in 1993. Pensions spending then increased rapidly to 7 percent GDP in 2003. After a brief retreat to 6.7 percent GDP in 2007 pensions spending reached up to 8.2 pecent GDP in 2013.

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Spending Data Sources

Expenditure data since 1983 comes from HM Treasury’s Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis reports.

Detailed table of spending data sources here.

Gross Domestic Product data comes from measuringworth.com.

Central government spending data begins in 1692.

Local authority spending data begins in 1868.

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Data Sources for 2016_2026:

Sources for 2016:

GDP: OBR EFO supp. economy tables
Spending: HM Treasury PESA
Debt: OBR Public Finances Databank

Sources for 2026:

GDP: OBR EFO supp. economy tables
Spending: HM Treasury PESA
Debt: OBR Public Finances Databank

> spending data sources for other years

PESA 2025 Update

On July 23, 2025, HM Treasury published its Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA) for 2025. ukpublicspending.co.uk uses the PESA tables of public spending at the "sub-function" level as its major data source for UK public spending.

ukpublicspending.co.uk has now updated its spending tables using data from PESA 2025. The update includes outturn spending data for 2023-24, and plans data for 2024-25. ukpublicspending.co.uk uses PESA's Table 6.4 for Central Government expenditure, Table 7.4 for Local Authority expenditure, and Table 8.3 for Public Corporation capital expenditure.

Since HM Treasury does not provide plans estimates for future Local Authority spending, ukpublicspending.co.uk provides "guesstimates" instead. This is done by extending the percentage increase in spending between 2023-24 and 2024-25 for each sub-function for the plans year. It is assumed that local authority spending reductions will not carry through to plans years.

Country and Region spending has been updated up to 2023-24. These are obtained from Chapters 9 and 10 in the PESA document.