Basket of goods · 1990
What £1, £5 and £10 bought in 1990
£1 in 1990 has the CPI-adjusted purchasing power of £2.73 in 2024. Here's what that money actually bought back then.
Your budget in 1990
| Item | Price in 1990 | £1 buys | £5 buys | £10 buys | £50 buys |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average regulated rail fare (index (rebased: 100 in 2015)) | £70.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Big Mac (UK) (1 burger) | £1.55 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 32 |
| Cinema ticket (standard adult) | £2.50 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 20 |
| Dozen large eggs (12 large) | £1.25 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 40 |
| Electricity (kWh, dual-fuel) (1 kWh) | £0.08 | 12 | 62 | 125 | 625 |
| First-class stamp (stamp) | £0.20 | 5 | 25 | 50 | 250 |
| Litre of petrol (unleaded) (1 litre) | £0.41 | 2 | 12 | 24 | 121 |
| Loaf of white sliced bread (800g loaf) | £0.52 | 1 | 9 | 19 | 96 |
| Pint of beer in a pub (pint, on-licence) | £1.10 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 45 |
| Pint of milk (pint (568ml)) | £0.30 | 3 | 16 | 33 | 166 |
| Weekly family food shop (basket for 2 adults + 2 kids) | £38.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Same money, different era
£10 in 1990 is equivalent to approximately £27.30 in 2024 purchasing power. £100 in 1990 is equivalent to £272.98. That is the "CPI-monetary" view, but the story of individual items is more mixed — some have inflated faster than the overall index, others slower.
Explore the full price history table to see how each item's inflation trajectory compares, or use the inflation calculator for any amount/year combination.
Frequently asked questions
- What did £1 buy in 1990?
- In 1990, £1 bought approximately 0 pint(s) of beer in a pub, 2.4 litres of petrol or about 1 loaves of bread. Full price table above.
- How much inflation between 1990 and 2024?
- Cumulative UK CPI inflation (ONS series D7BT) between 1990 and 2024 is approximately 173%. £1 in 1990 equates to roughly £2.73 in 2024 purchasing power. Individual items have inflated at very different rates — see the price table.
- Which item has inflated most since 1990?
- Among the items tracked here, regulated rail fares, electricity and first-class postage have risen most steeply since 1990. Others — especially large supermarket food — have tracked broadly with overall CPI. Use the basket comparison table to see every item across all years.
- Is this the same data the Bank of England uses?
- Yes — the underlying index is ONS D7BT (UK Consumer Prices Index, All Items). The Bank of England's public inflation calculator uses the same series, so our figures match to within rounding. Individual retail-item prices come from ONS item-level CPI time series plus published sources (RAC Foundation for petrol, Cinema Exhibitors' Association for ticket prices).