The statistic shows the growth rate in the real GDP in the United Kingdom from 2020 to 2024, with projections up until 2030. In 2024, the rate of GDP growth in the United Kingdom was at around 1.1 percent compared to the previous year.The economy of the United KingdomGDP is used an indicator as to the shape of a national economy. It is one of the most regularly called upon measurements regarding the economic fitness of a country. GDP is the total market value of all final goods and services that have been produced in a country within a given period of time, usually a year. Inflation adjusted real GDP figures serve as an even more telling indication of a country’s economic state in that they act as a more reliable and clear tool as to a nation’s economic health. The gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate in the United Kingdom has started to level in recent years after taking a huge body blow in the financial collapse of 2008. The UK managed to rise from the state of dark desperation it was in between 2009 and 2010, from -3.97 to 1.8 percent. The country suffered acutely from the collapse of the banking industry, raising a number of questions within the UK with regards to the country’s heavy reliance on revenues coming from London's financial sector, arguably the most important in the world and one of the globe’s financial command centers. Since the collapse of the post-war consensus and the rise of Thatcherism, the United Kingdom has been swept along in a wave of individualism - collective ideals have been abandoned and the mass privatisation of the heavy industries was unveiled - opening them up to market competition and shifting the economic focus to that of service.The Big Bang policy, one of the cornerstones of the Thatcher government programs of reform, involved mass and sudden deregulation of financial markets. This led to huge changes in the way the financial markets in London work, and saw the many old firms being absorbed by big banks. This, one could argue, strengthened the UK financial sector greatly and while frivolous and dangerous practices brought the sector into great disrepute, the city of London alone brings in around one fifth of the countries national income making it a very prominent contributor to wealth in the UK.

The United Kingdom's economy grew by 1.1 percent in 2024, after a growth rate of 0.4 percent in 2023, 4.8 percent in 2022, 8.6 percent in 2021, and a record 10.3 percent fall in 2020. During the provided time period, the biggest annual fall in gross domestic product before 2020 occurred in 2009, when the UK economy contracted by 4.6 percent at the height of the global financial crisis of the late 2000s. Before 2021, the year with the highest annual GDP growth rate was 1973, when the UK economy grew by 6.5 percent. UK economy growing but GDP per capita falling In 2022, the UK's GDP per capita amounted to approximately 37,371 pounds, with this falling to 37,028 pounds in 2023, and 36,977 pounds in 2024. While the UK economy as a whole grew during this time, the UK's population grew at a faster rate, resulting in the negative growth in GDP per capita. This suggests the UK economy's struggles with productivity are not only stagnating, but getting worse. The relatively poor economic performance of the UK in recent years has not gone unnoticed by the electorate, with the economy consistently seen as the most important issue for voters since 2022. Recent shocks to UK economy In the second quarter of 2020, the UK economy shrank by a record 20.3 percent at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although there was a relatively swift economic recovery initially, the economy has struggled to grow much beyond its pre-pandemic size, and was only around 3.1 percent larger in December 2024, when compared with December 2019. Although the labor market has generally been quite resilient during this time, a long twenty-month period between 2021 and 2023 saw prices rise faster than wages, and inflation surge to a high of 11.1 percent in October 2022.

With the onset of the Global Financial Crisis in the late Summer of 2007, the United Kingdom was one of the first countries to experience financial panic after the United States. In September 2007, the bank Northern Rock became the UK's first bank to collapse in 150 years due to a bank run, as depositors reacted to the announcement that the bank would be seeking emergency liquidity support from the Bank of England by lining up outside their bank branches to withdraw money. The failure of Northern Rock was a bad omen for the UK economy and financial sector, as banks stopped lending to each other and to customers in what became known as the 'credit crunch'. Government bailouts, private bailouts By October 2008, many UK banks were facing a situation where if they did not receive external assistance, then they would have to default on their debts and likely have to declare bankruptcy. The UK's Labour government, led by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, announced that it would provide emergency funds to stabilize the banking system, leading to the part or full nationalization of some of Britain's largest financial firms. Specifically, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB, and HBOS received over 35 billion pounds in a government cash injection, while Barclays opted to seek investment from private investors in order to avoid nationalization, much of which came from the state of Qatar. The bailouts caused UK government debt ratios to almost double over the period of the crisis, while public trust in the financial system sank.

United Kingdom Weekly Household Exp: Avg: CF: Clothing: Accessories: Crash Helmet data was reported at 0.000 GBP in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 0.100 GBP for 2015. United Kingdom Weekly Household Exp: Avg: CF: Clothing: Accessories: Crash Helmet data is updated yearly, averaging 0.000 GBP from Dec 2006 (Median) to 2016, with 11 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 0.100 GBP in 2015 and a record low of 0.000 GBP in 2016. United Kingdom Weekly Household Exp: Avg: CF: Clothing: Accessories: Crash Helmet data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office for National Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s UK – Table UK.H023: Average Weekly Household Expenditure.

With the collapse of the U.S. housing market and the subsequent financial crisis on Wall Street in 2007 and 2008, economies across the globe began to enter into deep recessions. What had started out as a crisis centered on the United States quickly became global in nature, as it became apparent that not only had the economies of other advanced countries (grouped together as the G7) become intimately tied to the U.S. financial system, but that many of them had experienced housing and asset price bubbles similar to that in the U.S.. The United Kingdom had experienced a huge inflation of housing prices since the 1990s, while Eurozone members (such as Germany, France and Italy) had financial sectors which had become involved in reckless lending to economies on the periphery of the EU, such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Other countries, such as Japan, were hit heavily due their export-led growth models which suffered from the decline in international trade. Unemployment during the Great Recession As business and consumer confidence crashed, credit markets froze, and international trade contracted, the unemployment rate in the most advanced economies shot up. While four to five percent is generally considered to be a healthy unemployment rate, nearing full employment in the economy (when any remaining unemployment is not related to a lack of consumer demand), many of these countries experienced rates at least double that, with unemployment in the United States peaking at almost 10 percent in 2010. In large countries, unemployment rates of this level meant millions or tens of millions of people being out of work, which led to political pressures to stimulate economies and create jobs. By 2012, many of these countries were seeing declining unemployment rates, however, in France and Italy rates of joblessness continued to increase as the Euro crisis took hold. These countries suffered from having a monetary policy which was too tight for their economies (due to the ECB controlling interest rates) and fiscal policy which was constrained by EU debt rules. Left with the option of deregulating their labor markets and pursuing austerity policies, their unemployment rates remained over 10 percent well into the 2010s. Differences in labor markets The differences in unemployment rates at the peak of the crisis (2009-2010) reflect not only the differences in how economies were affected by the downturn, but also the differing labor market institutions and programs in the various countries. Countries with more 'liberalized' labor markets, such as the United States and United Kingdom experienced sharp jumps in their unemployment rate due to the ease at which employers can lay off workers in these countries. When the crisis subsided in these countries, however, their unemployment rates quickly began to drop below those of the other countries, due to their more dynamic labor markets which make it easier to hire workers when the economy is doing well. On the other hand, countries with more 'coordinated' labor market institutions, such as Germany and Japan, experiences lower rates of unemployment during the crisis, as programs such as short-time work, job sharing, and wage restraint agreements were used to keep workers in their jobs. While these countries are less likely to experience spikes in unemployment during crises, the highly regulated nature of their labor markets mean that they are slower to add jobs during periods of economic prosperity.

A recent analysis on the impact of Brexit suggests that in 2023, the United Kingdom's economy was *** percent smaller than it would have been in a base scenario where the UK never left the EU. The estimated hit to the UK's gross domestic product (GDP) increases to ***** percent in 2024, and to *** percent by 2025 in this forecast. UK growth cut at start of turbulent 2025 After growing by *** percent in 2024, the UK economy is expected to grow by *** percent in 2025, down from an earlier forecast of *** percent. As of 2025, the UK economy is approximately *** percent larger than it was just before the COVID-19 pandemic five years earlier, which delivered a sudden and severe economic shock to the country. While the initial bounce back from this collapse was robust, the recovery slowed by the end of 2020, and it wasn't until late 2021 that the economy returned to its pre-pandemic size. Throughout 2022 and 2023, the economy continued to struggle, and even experienced a recession at the end of 2023. How voters feel about Brexit in 2025 Since the middle of 2021, a growing majority of voters in Britain have advised that they think Brexit was the wrong decision. As of January 2025, around ** percent thought it was wrong to leave the EU, compared with just ** percent in April 2021. By comparison, the share of Britons who think Brexit was the right decision has fallen from ** percent to ** percent in the same time period. Voters are, however, still quite divided on what relationship they want with the EU, with only ** percent supporting rejoining completely. Furthermore, Brexit has fallen behind other issues for voters such as the economy, the NHS, and immigration and the issue played a much smaller role in the 2024 election than it did in 2019.

The Business Jet market will suffer from the COVID-19 crisis due to the lockdowns occurring in a number of geographies, the imposition of quarantines, the economic collapse resulting from the COVID-19 crisis, as well as the cash flow issues impacting buyers, lessors, financial institutions, and manufacturers. Read More

BackgroundActive travel has gained traction among policy makers as a promising solution to physical inactivity. Returns on active travel investments, including cycling infrastructure, crucially rely on resulting improvements in population behaviours. Estimating the expected economic value that an additional regular cyclist will generate and being able to identify the behaviour change required at the population level to offset the intervention costs is important to inform future investment decisions.MethodsThe WHO’s Health Economic Assessment Tool was employed to conduct a break-even analysis. A case study methodology was used which focused on a real-world construction project of a separated cycleway in the UK. The economic assessment considered physical activity benefits, air pollution, crash risk and carbon emissions in monetary terms. An iterative computational approach was applied to identify the behaviour change (cycling) requirements, and corresponding benefits valued using international dollars, to break even on the investment costs. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to assess robustness of the base-case results.ResultsOver a ten-year time horizon, an additional regular cyclist (i.e., someone cycling most days of the week) was found to generate $798 (₤533) per annum (international dollars). An additional 267 regular cyclists per km were required to break even on the construction of the new separated cycleway. Estimates were particularly sensitive to variations to age, cycling volume and evaluation time horizon.ConclusionsPolicymakers planning to invest in cycling infrastructure should consider using these reproducible, order-of-magnitude estimates to complement the more comprehensive transport appraisal and budget allocation processes. This would ensure that, when considering its health-related economic benefits, the investment is justifiable on economic sustainability grounds.

Between the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the end of the Great Depression in the late 1930s, the Soviet Union saw the largest growth in its gross domestic product, growing by more than 70 percent between 1929 and 1937/8. The Great Depression began in 1929 in the United States, following the stock market crash in late October. The inter-connectedness of the global economy, particularly between North America and Europe, then came to the fore as the collapse of the U.S. economy exposed the instabilities of other industrialized countries. In contrast, the economic isolation of the Soviet Union and its detachment from the capitalist system meant that it was relatively shielded from these events. 1929-1932 The Soviet Union was one of just three countries listed that experienced GDP growth during the first three years of the Great Depression, with Bulgaria and Denmark being the other two. Bulgaria experienced the largest GDP growth over these three years, increasing by 27 percent, although it was also the only country to experience a decline in growth over the second period. The majority of other European countries saw their GDP growth fall in the depression's early years. However, none experienced the same level of decline as the United States, which dropped by 28 percent. 1932-1938 In the remaining years before the Second World War, all of the listed countries saw their GDP grow significantly, particularly Germany, the Soviet Union, and the United States. Coincidentally, these were the three most powerful nations during the Second World War. This recovery was primarily driven by industrialization, and, again, the U.S., USSR, and Germany all experienced the highest level of industrial growth between 1932 and 1938.

In 2022/23, the United Kingdom's defence spending as a share of Gross Domestic Product is estimated to be 2.2 percent. During this time period, the UK's defence spending was at its highest in 1955/56 when 7.6 percent of the UK's GDP was spent on the military. Defence spending has fallen considerably throughout this period, especially after 1984/85, and then at a much faster pace after the end of the Cold War in 1991. It is estimated that defence spending as a share of GDP fell to its lowest level between 2016/17 and 2018/19 when it was just 1.8 percent. Armed forces fall to record lows in 2024 Since the early 1950s, there has been a consistent reduction in the size of the UK's armed forces. The importance of Britain maintaining a large standing army declined following the collapse of the British Empire by the late 1970s, and the end of the Cold War around a decade later. At the start of the 1990s, there were approximately 300,000 personnel in the armed forces, with this falling to 200,000 by 2005. Following a further strategic review of the army's capabilities in 2010, additional cuts to personnel were implemented, with cuts of approximately 50,000 throughout the 2010s. As of 2024, there were 75,320 personnel in the Army, 30,800 in the Royal Air Force, and 32,000 in the Royal Navy and Marines, a total of 138,120 active personnel. The UK and NATO The UK is one of the twelve founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance formed in 1949. NATO's initial purpose was to defend Western Europe against the Soviet Union, with its role evolving to include peacekeeping and counter-terrorism after the end of the Cold War. As of 2025, the alliance includes 32 nations, with just two of these (Canada and the United States) outside of Europe. The United States is by far the largest military power in the alliance, dominating in terms of manpower, equipment, and military spending. Donald Trump's return to the White House in 2025, who has been skeptical of NATO, may prove difficult for the alliance should he distance the U.S. from Europe's security challenges.

In 2023/24, the UK government's North Sea revenue was 4.9 billion British pounds, compared with 9.9 billion in the previous reporting year. North Sea revenue refers to revenues from petroleum revenue tax, corporation tax and license fees from all offshore oil and gas activity in the North Sea.

As of July 2025, the political party that 18 to 24 year-old's in Great Britain would be most likely to vote for was the Labour Party, at 33 percent, with Labour also the most popular party among those aged 25 to 49. Reform UK was the most popular party for the 50 to 64 age group, with 29 percent of voters saying they would vote for them. For the oldest age group, the Reform was also the most popular, with 35 percent of over 65s intending to vote for them. Reform surge in the polls Since winning the last UK general election in July 2024, the ruling Labour Party have steadily become more unpopular among voters. After winning 33.7 percent of the vote in that election, the party was polling at 24 percent in April 2025, only slightly ahead of Reform UK on 23 percent. A right-wing populist party, Reform benefited from the collapse in support for the center-right Conservative Party in the last election, winning several seats at their expense. While the next UK general election is not due to be held until 2029, the government will be keen to address their collapsing approval ratings, in the face of Reform's rising support. Economic headaches for Labour in 2025 Although Labour inherited a growing economy, with falling inflation, and low unemployment from the Conservatives, the overall economic outlook for the UK is still quite gloomy. The country's government debt is around 100 percent of GDP, and without large tax rises and spending cuts, the government hopes to create a stronger, more resilient economy to reduce the deficit. While this is still a possibility, the UK's economic prospects for 2025 were recently slashed, with growth of one percent forecast, down from an earlier prediction of two percent. Although mainly due to external factors such as the threat of increasing tariffs, and general geopolitical instability, the UK's faltering economy will add further problems to the embattled government.

In the first quarter of 2020, global stock indices posted substantial losses that were triggered by the outbreak of COVID-19. The period from March 6 to 18 was particularly dramatic, with several stock indices losing more than ** percent of their value. Worldwide panic hits markets From the United States to the United Kingdom, stock market indices suffered steep falls as the coronavirus pandemic created economic uncertainty. The Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 are two indices that track company performance in the United States, and both lost value as lockdowns were introduced in the country. European markets also recorded significant slumps, which triggered panic selling among investors. The FTSE 100 – the leading share index of companies in the UK – plunged by as much as ** percent in the opening weeks of March 2020. Is it time to invest in tech stocks? The S&P 500 is regarded as the best representation of the U.S. economy because it includes more companies from the leading industries. However, helped in no small part by its focus on tech companies, the Nasdaq 100 has risen in popularity and seen remarkable growth in recent years. Global demand for digital technologies has increased further due to the coronavirus, with remote working and online shopping becoming part of the new normal. As a result, more investors are likely to switch to the tech stocks listed on the Nasdaq 100.