ONS: Public sector finances
Office for National Statistics
Net debt, borrowing, debt interest, monthly public finances. The headline UK measures.
Sources
Every figure on this site traces back to an official source. These are the sources.
About these figures
I refreshed the headline, monthly and indicator figures on 25 October 2026 against the ONS September 2026 public sector finances release. Inflation and unemployment come from the September and October 2026 ONS bulletins, and the international comparison from the IMF World Economic Outlook of October 2026. The wider figure set had its last full re-audit against primary sources (ONS, OBR, HMRC, HM Treasury, House of Commons Library, IMF and DWP) on 21 July 2026, when the international comparison came straight from the IMF DataMapper. Each figure carries its own source, date and confidence level on the page. Two caveats are worth knowing. The long-run historical timeline before about 2010 is a best-estimate reconstruction, marked 'estimated'. The GDP figure is the denominator consistent with the published debt-to-GDP ratio, not a single published release. See docs/UPDATING-DATA.md for the refresh process.
OBR: Public finances databank and forecasts
Office for Budget Responsibility
Long-run public finance series and official forecasts to compare outturn against.
UK Debt Management Office
DMO
Gilt issuance, the stock of gilts, and who holds UK government debt.
HM Treasury: Public spending statistics
HM Treasury
Spending by function (health, education, defence, welfare).
ONS: Population estimates
Office for National Statistics
UK population, used for per-person figures.
IMF: World Economic Outlook database
International Monetary Fund
Consistent international debt and deficit comparisons.
Bank of England: A millennium of macroeconomic data
Bank of England
Long-run historical series for the timeline.
Visit source: Bank of England: A millennium of macroeconomic data
House of Commons Library: What are government debt and debt interest?
House of Commons Library
Secondary analysis rather than a primary statistical release: plain-English context on debt, debt interest and borrowing costs, including the market gilt yields this site does not publish itself.
Visit source: House of Commons Library: What are government debt and debt interest?
Confidence levels
- official
- Taken directly from an official published release.
- provisional
- Official but flagged by the publisher as subject to revision.
- estimated
- An estimate, interpolation, or nowcast, not a published official figure.
- calculated
- Derived by this site from other figures, such as debt per person.