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Where does the money go?

Where public money goes: expenditure by function, in cash, in real terms, per resident and as a share of the economy.

Total managed expenditure · Year ending March 2025

£1.29tn billion

£18,550 for every resident · 44.4% of GDP

Everything the public sector spent in the financial year, on HM Treasury’s classification of spending by function. Per-resident figures divide by the ONS mid-year population for the year in question (69,281,437 people at mid-2024).

By function

Function	£ billion	Per resident	Real terms	Of all spending	Of GDP	Real, on a year earlier	Real, on ten years earlier
Health (the NHS)	£241.8bn	£3,490	£241.8bn	18.8%	8.4%	up 4.7%	up 33.4%
Social protection (welfare and pensions)	£383.9bn	£5,541	£383.9bn	29.9%	13.3%	up 1.2%	up 8.8%
Education	£118.7bn	£1,713	£118.7bn	9.2%	4.1%	down 0.1%	up 3.2%
Defence	£63.6bn	£918	£63.6bn	4.9%	2.2%	up 7.6%	up 28.2%
Public order and safety	£51.4bn	£742	£51.4bn	4%	1.8%	up 1.4%	up 26.0%
Debt interest	£124.7bn	£1,800	£124.7bn	9.7%	4.3%	down 5.3%	up 71.8%
Transport	£46.4bn	£670	£46.4bn	3.6%	1.6%	down 7.8%	up 56.2%
Housing and community amenities	£22.3bn	£322	£22.3bn	1.7%	0.8%	up 2.8%	up 60.4%
Economic affairs	£86.8bn	£1,253	Not published	6.8%	3%*	Not published	Not published
Environment protection	£17.1bn	£247	Not published	1.3%	0.6%*	Not published	Not published
General public services	£157.6bn	£2,275	Not published	12.3%	5.4%*	Not published	Not published

Cash and real-terms figures are HM Treasury’s (PESA table 4.2 and 4.3, real terms at 2024-25 prices using the GDP deflator; 2024-25 is the price base year, so for that year real terms equal cash). Shares of GDP marked * are calculated here from the Treasury’s total spending and its published share of GDP; the others are the Treasury’s own (table 4.4). The functions do not sum to total managed expenditure, which also includes EU transactions and accounting adjustments.

Within those functions

The Treasury’s sub-function table (PESA table 5.2) is where police, courts, prisons, the state pension and aid are separately identified. It is published in cash terms only, for the latest five years.

Sub-function	Within	£ million	Per resident	Of all spending	Of GDP*	Cash, since Year ending March 2021
Medical services	Health	£231.5bn	£3,342	18%	8%	up 23.6%
Pensions (chiefly the state pension)	Social protection	£146.5bn	£2,115	11.4%	5.06%	up 29.4%
Old age, all spending	Social protection	£162.7bn	£2,348	12.7%	5.62%	up 29.4%
Sickness and disability	Social protection	£83.6bn	£1,207	6.5%	2.89%	up 37.6%
Family and children	Social protection	£33.6bn	£485	2.6%	1.16%	up 25.4%
Unemployment	Social protection	£1.3bn	£19	0.1%	0.05%	down 29.9%
Police services	Public order	£28.7bn	£415	2.2%	0.99%	up 33.0%
Law courts	Public order	£9.2bn	£133	0.7%	0.32%	up 33.2%
Prisons	Public order	£7.4bn	£107	0.6%	0.26%	up 34.4%
Fire protection	Public order	£3.9bn	£57	0.3%	0.14%	up 30.9%
Railways	Transport	£26.7bn	£385	2.1%	0.92%	down 1.4%
Housing development	Housing	£14.4bn	£208	1.1%	0.5%	up 77.4%
International development (foreign economic aid)	General public services	£7.7bn	£111	0.6%	0.27%	down 10.7%
Government administration	General public services	£17.6bn	£254	1.4%	0.61%	up 31.2%

What is not on this page

Local government is not a function in the Treasury’s classification: councils’ spending sits inside every function above (social care under social protection, schools under education, local roads under transport). The local government topic covers council tax and council finance. “The NHS” is the health function, which also includes public health and medical research. The state pension is most of the “pensions” line inside old age, but that line also carries other old-age pensions the Treasury classifies with it. Devolved spending is included: these are UK-wide figures.

Where does the money go?

By function

Within those functions

What is not on this page

Every spending series