ONS price data · 1914–2024
What £1 bought
In 1914 a pound bought 143 pints of milk or 83 large loaves. Today it buys 1.54 pints, and not a single loaf. These are the prices the Office for National Statistics actually recorded in the shops, so nothing here is adjusted or estimated — it is £1 divided by what the thing cost.
In 1914, £1 bought 143 pints of milk. By 2024 it bought 1.5.
| Item | Price in 1914 | £1 bought | Price in 2024 | £1 buys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unwrapped white loaf (800g) | 1.2p | 83 | £1.67 | 0.60 — not even one |
| Cheese: cheddar type, per Kg | 8p | 13 | £8.38 | 0.12 — not even one |
| Milk (pint) | 0.7p | 143 | 65.1p | 1.5 |
| Sugar (1kg) | 3p | 33 | £1.17 | 0.86 — not even one |
| Flour: self raising, per 1.5 Kg | 2.3p | 43 | 83p | 1.2 |
ONS RPI average prices (dataset MM23), annual averages, Open Government Licence. These are cash prices as recorded at the time, with no inflation adjustment — £1 is simply divided by the price. Item definitions are revised as the RPI basket changes, so a long run is a fair guide to the trend rather than a like-for-like comparison of an identical product, and series whose units changed partway through are excluded.
Not everything rose at the same rate
The headline figure for inflation is an average across a basket, and averages conceal a lot. Measured from 1914, bread has risen many times more than sugar or flour. What drives a price — wages, energy, transport, subsidy, global commodity markets, how much processing sits between the field and the shelf — varies by product, and those forces have pulled in different directions over a century.
It is also why “the cost of living” feels different to different households. A budget weighted towards the items at the top of the table has had a harder time than the average suggests.
This or the value of money?
Two different questions, and it is worth knowing which one you want. This page uses recorded cash prices, so it answers how many things a pound bought. Our value of money page uses the long-run price index to answer what a sum of money is worth in today’s terms — reach for that one for “what is £100 in 1914 worth now”.
They will not agree exactly, and they are not meant to. An index tracks a broad basket whose contents change; a single item tracks itself.
Using this data
Please use these figures. They come from ONS dataset MM23 and are published under the Open Government Licence, which allows reuse with attribution. 56 series are included, the longest running from 1914.
Suggested citation: Sunny Avenue, “What £1 bought — UK prices since 1914”, derived from ONS RPI average prices (MM23). Retrieved 2026-07-29. https://www.sunnyavenue.co.uk/what-1-pound-bought
Frequently asked questions
What did £1 buy in 1914?
About 143 pints of milk, or 83 large loaves of bread. These are ONS average shop prices as recorded at the time — a pint of milk really did cost under a penny — so the figures are a straight division of £1 by the price, with no inflation adjustment.
How much less does £1 buy today?
A pound bought roughly 143 pints of milk in 1914 and about 1.54 in 2024. Bread has fared worse still: £1 bought 83 loaves then and cannot buy one now.
Have all prices risen by the same amount?
No, and the spread is wide. Since 1914 bread has risen by far more than sugar or flour, because the mix of what drives a price — labour, energy, transport, subsidy, global commodity markets — differs by product. Averages hide that, which is why it is worth looking at individual items.
Is this the same as adjusting for inflation?
No. This page uses the actual cash price of goods in each year, so no index or adjustment is involved. If you want to convert a sum of money between two years — what £100 in 1914 is worth now — that is a different calculation and it is on our value of money page.
Where does this data come from?
The Office for National Statistics publishes average shop prices for the RPI basket in dataset MM23, with some series running from 1914. It is available under the Open Government Licence and free to reuse with attribution. Item definitions are revised over time, so a long run shows the trend rather than an identical product tracked for a century.