Rich PillockWhat £10 was worth in every decade since 1960
£10 in 1970 had the buying power of about £164.05 in 2025, going by the World Bank's consumer price index for the UK, the index this site's calculator uses. The UK's own long-run retail prices index, kept by the Office for National Statistics, puts the same £10 at £217.32.
Tool: Inflation Calculator: What Your Money Was Worth
Same amount, same drawer. I don't see what all the fuss is about.
What was £10 worth in 1970, 1980 and 1990?
“Worth” here means the amount it takes in 2025 to buy what £10 bought in the year shown, in the UK. Two official price indexes are given, because they do not agree. The first column is the one the inflation calculator on this site uses, so this page and the calculator always match.
| £10 in | In 2025 money: consumer price index (World Bank) | In 2025 money: long-run retail prices index (ONS) | What today's £10 was, in that year's prices |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | £244.11 | £323.54 | £0.41 |
| 1970 | £164.05 | £217.32 | £0.61 |
| 1980 | £45.48 | £60.24 | £2.20 |
| 1990 | £25.06 | £31.93 | £3.99 |
| 2000 | £18.80 | £23.65 | £5.32 |
| 2010 | £15.31 | £18.01 | £6.53 |
| 2020 | £12.68 | £13.74 | £7.89 |
Download this table (CSV). Free to reuse with the sources named.
Source: World Bank, Consumer price index (FP.CPI.TOTL), CC BY 4.0; Office for National Statistics, consumer price inflation time series (MM23), Open Government Licence v3.0. Period: 1960 to 2025, United Kingdom; ONS series CDKO for the second column. Last updated: .
What was £10 worth in 1970?
About £164.05 in 2025 money on the consumer price index, or £217.32 on the long-run retail prices index. Turned round, today's £10 would have been £0.61 in 1970.
What was £10 worth in 1980?
About £45.48 on the first index and £60.24 on the second. The 1970s did most of the damage: a ten pound note lost more than two thirds of its buying power between the two rows.
What was £10 worth in 1990?
About £25.06 on the first index and £31.93 on the second.
Why do two calculators give different answers?
Because there is more than one official price index, and they are built differently: a different basket of goods and a different way of averaging it. For £10 of 1970 the retail prices figure is 32% higher than the consumer prices one, and it is the higher of the two in every row above. Neither is a mistake. A calculator that does not say which index it uses will still give an answer, and two of them will give two.
So every figure on this page names its index. I once had two accountants who did not agree. I went with the one who had the nicer office.
What did £10 actually buy?
An index is an average. These are real shop prices: the averages collected by the Office for National Statistics, turned into how many of each thing a ten pound note bought. Whole ones only.
| Year | Pints of milk | Sliced white loaves (800g) | Pints of draught lager |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | 303 | no figure | no figure |
| 1970 | 212 | 111 | no figure |
| 1980 | 59 | 30 | no figure |
| 1990 | 32 | 20 | 8 |
| 2000 | 29 | 19 | 5 |
| 2010 | 22 | 8 | 3 |
| 2020 | 23 | 9 | no figure |
| 2024 | 15 | 7 | 2 |
In 1970 that was 212 pints of milk. I couldn't have carried it home. By 2024 I could carry the lot in one hand.
Source: Office for National Statistics, consumer price inflation time series (MM23), Open Government Licence v3.0. Period: 1960 to 2024, United Kingdom, series CZNT, CZOH and CZMS. Last updated: . The ONS gives old prices in today's decimal pence. Lager only joins the list in 1987, there is no annual lager figure for 2020, and this set of average prices stops in January 2025.
What about dollars?
The same sum for the United States, on the World Bank's consumer price index, which for the US runs to 2024.
| $10 in | In 2024 money |
|---|---|
| 1960 | $106.06 |
| 1970 | $80.80 |
| 1980 | $38.07 |
| 1990 | $24.01 |
| 2000 | $18.22 |
| 2010 | $14.39 |
| 2020 | $12.12 |
Source: World Bank, Consumer price index (FP.CPI.TOTL), CC BY 4.0. Period: 1960 to 2024, United States. Last updated: .
What happened to my own ten pound note?
This one is mine, so the story is made up and the prices are real. I have had the same ten pound note in a sock drawer since 1990. I didn't trust a bank. It says ten pounds. It'll say ten pounds forever. In 1990 it was good for 8 pints of lager. By 2024 it was good for 2.
And the note never gets any smaller. If it shrank, you'd notice.
Slide through the decades
The same figures as the tables on this page. A sum, not advice.The tool that goes with this
ToolInflation Calculator: What Your Money Was WorthPick a country and a year. See what the same money buys now.Questions people ask
How much was £10 worth in 1960?
About £244.11 in 2025 money on the consumer price index, or £323.54 on the long-run retail prices index.
How much was £1 worth in 1970?
A tenth of the £10 figure: about £16.40 in 2025 money on the consumer price index.
How much was a pint of milk in 1960?
The ONS average for 1960 is 3.3p a pint in decimal money, so £10 bought 303 pints.
How much was a pint of lager in 1990?
The ONS average for 1990 is £1.22. In 2024 it was £4.77.
What was $10 worth in 1970?
About $80.80 in 2024 money, on the World Bank's consumer price index for the United States.
Sources
- World Bank: Consumer price index, 2010 = 100 (FP.CPI.TOTL): the first column, and the dollar table
- Office for National Statistics: long-run price index, 1800 onwards (CDKO): the second column
- Office for National Statistics: average price of a pint of milk (CZNT)
- Office for National Statistics: average price of a white sliced loaf (CZOH)
- Office for National Statistics: average price of a pint of draught lager (CZMS)