COUNTRY / INDICATOR
United Kingdom Government Spending
United Kingdom government spending: latest available value for 2025, historical series from 2016, ranking context and source documentation.
Series overview
NE.CON.GOVT.ZS| Year | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 21,23 | 0,32 |
| 2024 | 20,90 | 0,29 |
| 2023 | 20,62 | 0,06 |
| 2022 | 20,56 | -1,34 |
| 2021 | 21,90 | -0,42 |
| 2020 | 22,32 | 3,42 |
| 2019 | 18,90 | 0,58 |
| 2018 | 18,32 | -0,15 |
| 2017 | 18,47 | -0,55 |
| 2016 | 19,02 | — |
Source methodology
World Development IndicatorsIndicator note: Final consumption expenditure is expenditure on goods and services by resident institutional units for the direct satisfaction of human needs or wants, whether individual or collective. General government FCE includes all government current expenditures for purchases of goods and services (including compensation of employees), and most expenditures on national defense and security, but excludes government military expenditures that are part of government capital formation. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is the total income earned through the production of goods and services in an economic territory during an accounting period.
Source organization: Country official statistics, National Statistical Offices (NSOs); National Accounts data files, Central Banks; Staff estimates, World Bank (WB)
Metadata fetched: 2026-08-01 01:36:01. Open original metadata response.
Revision history
1 detected changesSource revisions are retained before the current observation is replaced. This table documents the previous and replacement value for reproducibility.
| Detected | Data year | Previous value | Replacement value | Source | Source update |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-01 00:31:04 | 2025 | 21,23 | 21,23 | World Bank Indicators API | 2026-07-13 02:00:00 |
Country-specific interpretation
Automatically derived from the displayed seriesUnited Kingdom recorded 21,23 percent of GDP in 2025, the latest year available in this series.
Compared with 2024, the government spending increased by 0,32.
Across the latest five-year comparison window, the series shows an downward direction.
Across 10 observations from 2016 to 2025, the average was 20,22; the minimum was 18,32 in 2018 and the maximum was 22,32 in 2020.
United Kingdom ranks 46 out of 181 countries with a current value in the portal ranking.
The latest value is above the available average for Europe & Central Asia.
It is also above the available average for the High income group.
Public-sector demand and expenditure footprint.