Cost of living in United Kingdom
92.4 with the United States at 100
Prices in United Kingdom are 8% cheaper than the United States, and it ranks 28th of 204 countries by price level (dearest first). Figures are for 2025.
Against New Zealand it is 4% dearer.
Two agencies agree. For 2024, the World Bank's figure works out at 87.3 and Eurostat's at 89.9 — a gap of 2.6 points. Two independent programmes landing within 5 points is the strongest evidence available that the level is right.
Compared with its region
United Kingdom against the Europe & Central Asia countries closest to it on price level.
- United Kingdom 92.4
- Finland 90.6
- Sweden 90.5
- Norway 96.2
- Greenland 87.3
- Belgium 87.2
- Netherlands 86.7
- Luxembourg 98.6
- Austria 84.8
SOURCE·World Bank — International Comparison Program·PPP conversion factor for household final consumption, and the official market exchange rate. CC BY 4.0.·REVIEWED AUG 2026
What is dear and what is cheap
Eurostat prices 1 spending categories separately for United Kingdom (2024), again with the United States at 100. This is where a national average stops being one number: a country can be cheap to eat in and expensive to drive in.
SOURCE·Eurostat — purchasing power parities (prc_ppp_ind)·Price level indices by consumption category, published on an EU27=100 basis and rebased here to US=100. CC BY 4.0.·REVIEWED AUG 2026
What this figure is, and is not
- It is an index, not a price. 92.4 means the general level of consumer prices, with the US at 100. It is not a shopping bill and this site never quotes one.
- It is national, not city. London is almost certainly dearer than this. National averages cannot answer a city question.
- It is not your budget. What you actually spend depends on rent, transport and habits far more than on the national average.
How the price level is worked out
- The World Bank publishes a purchasing power parity for household consumption — how much local currency buys the same basket as one US dollar — and the official market exchange rate for the same year.
- The price level is simply PPP ÷ exchange rate × 100. If a basket needs 1.50 New Zealand dollars per US dollar of purchasing power but the market hands you 1.65 New Zealand dollars for that dollar, New Zealand's prices sit at 1.50 ÷ 1.65 = 91% of the US level.
- Nothing is modelled, smoothed or estimated. You can reproduce every number on this site from two public figures.
- Where Eurostat also publishes a price level for the same country and year, the two are compared and the gap is printed — including when they disagree.
SOURCE·World Bank — International Comparison Program·PPP conversion factor for household final consumption, and the official market exchange rate. CC BY 4.0.·REVIEWED AUG 2026
SOURCE·World Bank ICP PPPs + Eurostat price level indices·price levels derived as PPP ÷ exchange rate, see method·REVIEWED AUG 2026