Inflation Calculator

We have used RPI, CPI, Average Salary Indexes and Bank Base Rate History to provide a calculation that shows the inflation adjusted value of any value you enter above.

If you are looking for the answer to what money was worth at a particular time in the past enter a few figures above and we will provide a full breakdown.

Base rate data is available from 1975 on. The base rate today is 5.25 percent.

RPI data is available from 1987 on. The RPI change over the last 12 months (calculated today) was 4.83 percent.

CPI data is available from 1800 on. The CPI change over the last 12 months (calculated today) was 4.82 percent.

Average Salary data is available from 2000 on. The average weekly salary today is £673. The change over the last 12 months (calculated today) was 6.49 percent.

We will show values from all indexes, where available, at the same time.

For property we provide an in-depth breakdown of the real term difference in cost between two dates on a particular amount. We do this by looking at actual mortgage costs at the time of the value provided and compare it to mortgage costs in the period you are comparing with.

You may wonder what inflation is? This inflation calculator gets you down to the figures and will clarify the differences between different time periods when it comes to buying power of money, and that is what inflation is! The buying power of money is reduced due to inflation when the price of goods and services increases over time. It's like when you hear that houses in 1970 were on sale for less than £10,000 in some cases. But in reality everything in 1970 will have extraordinarily low looking currency amounts compared to today - that includes pay. So things should even out if the economy has grown and pay has grown with inflation.

The measures of inflation we use here include CPI, RPI and average salary data.

CPI is the Consumer Price Index and is measured monthly. The index is the oldest we have, going all the way back to the 1800's. It is based on a market basket of goods and services where the prices are measured and standardised to an relative index value. We can compare the inflation between two dates by comparing this standardised index value and getting the inflation rate. It is seen as an international standard for measuring inflation over other methods.

RPI, the Retail Price Index, is a relatively newer index with the first figures collected only in 1947. It is also calculated much like CPI but is based on a list of items thought to be purchased by the average family, hence retail. When it comes to comparing property prices/mortgage costs RPI differs from CPI mainly as it does include council taxes, mortgage interest outgoings and house purchase related costs. Due to this the CPI index figure for comparable time periods will usually show a lower value.

The Average Weekly Salary index is the newest index we have and is a record of the average weekly salary in the UK since year 2000. It is provided as an additional marker to compare against RPI and CPI.

So if you are comparing inflation and the value of money between a time period on or after year 2000 you will see four measures of inflation that you can then compare instantly. Post-1947 you will see RPI and CPI and pre-1947 you will see only CPI. We do not have figures prior to year 1800 that are reliable so we cannot provide calculations before that date.