Public spending per head by function, UK and its nations
Public spending on services per person in each of the ten functions the UN's classification uses, in the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, in the latest financial year, £, from HM Treasury's country and regional analysis.
United Kingdom, all functions
£13,504
2024/25
Verified against source, 28 October 2026, 23:44 UTC- United Kingdom
- England
- Wales
- Scotland
- Northern Ireland
Source: HM Treasury. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
10 rows
| Category | United Kingdom | England | Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social protection | £5,475 | £5,322 | £6,471 | £6,123 | £6,628 |
| Health | £3,487 | £3,462 | £3,758 | £3,539 | £3,659 |
| Education | £1,772 | £1,722 | £1,850 | £2,129 | £2,111 |
| Economic affairs | £1,233 | £1,191 | £1,172 | £1,638 | £1,438 |
| Public order and safety | £664 | £653 | £688 | £707 | £832 |
| Housing and community amenities | £317 | £277 | £452 | £543 | £667 |
| Environment protection | £241 | £232 | £311 | £316 | £195 |
| General public services | £178 | £154 | £252 | £342 | £317 |
| Recreation, culture and religion | £137 | £120 | £201 | £226 | £270 |
| Defence | £1 | £1 | £1 | £1 | – |
Source and licence
- Publisher
- HM Treasury
- Check it yourself
- https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/country-and-regional-analysis
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 28 October 2026, 23:41 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://www.gov.uk/api/content/government/statistics/country-and-regional-analysis-2025SHA-256 e75b6ae4f6033409fbdef4baed3311f1ebb9e9dc42a22bfdcf89a1478c89af4a · 32,838 bytes
- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/691b0990d140bbbaa59a28ad/CRA_2025_Chapter_A_tables.xlsxSHA-256 0a8b1de08af66d84a9cbac1f5483fb4c99f9970552f74b2f17e1f0705120f7d4 · 300,219 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 28 October 2026, 23:44 UTC Run at 28 October 2026, 23:44 UTC; 50 of 50 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | HM Treasury; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-10-28T23:41:47Z; 2 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 2 of 2 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 50 of 50 figures and the headline reproduced |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 50 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 50 of 50 figures match exactly after downloading 2 source file(s) again (2 byte-identical); the headline matches |
| Pass | GOV.UK table is current | latest period 2024/25 ended 576 days before retrieval (limit 650), from Country and regional analysis 2025: A tables |
| Pass | The functions add up to each area's total | in 5 of 5 areas the ten functions sum to the total within the £5.50 that rounding eleven figures to the £ allows, and the total equals table A.1b's spending per head for 2024/25 |
| Pass | HM Treasury's database adds up to the £ million tables | 220 of 220 nation-year figures in tables A.1a and A.5 to A.14 equal the identifiable spending in https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/691b09e484a267da57d705d2/CRA_2025_Database_for_Publication.xlsx, summed by country and function, to £1 million |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/country-and-regional-analysis – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- Identifiable spending only: spending that can be placed in an area because it benefits the people there, so defence and general public services, much of whose spending benefits the UK as a whole, look small. Cash terms, so not adjusted for inflation.
- HM Treasury's table gives each of the last five years; the hub shows the latest. Its figures per head are rounded up to the nearest £, so the functions may not add up exactly to the total, and a dash in its table, shown here as a gap, means no spending at all.