Statistics on Public Health, England 2021

Long term trend

Since 1987, alcohol has become 72% more affordable in the UK. Appendix B4 (Technical Notes) provides information on how this is calculated.     

Last ten years (2010 to 2020)

Over the last ten years the price of alcohol has increased by 26% (based on the alcohol price index).

The price of alcohol decreased by 4% relative to retail prices (based on the alcohol price index relative to retail price index). Disposable income per adult increased by 9% over the same period.

As a result, alcohol has become 14% more affordable since 2010 (based on affordability of alcohol index). 

The Affordability of Alcohol uses Alcohol Price Index (API) and Retail Prices Index (RPI) data from the Inflation and price indices and households’ disposable income data from the Economic and Labour Market Review. Both are published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

UK household expenditure on alcohol has increased by 153% to £27.1 billion in 2020, from £10.7 billion in 1987.

However, since total household expenditure has increased by 317% during the same period, alcohol expenditure as a proportion of total household expenditure has fallen to 2.2% over the same period, from 3.5% in 1987.

Note: household expenditure is based on current prices. It includes purchases at supermarkets, off licences etc. but excludes purchases in pubs, bars, restaurants etc.

Further information on purchases and expenditure on alcohol are available in Family Food which is published by Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), and is based on data collected by the Living Costs and Food Survey.

This section looks at the affordability of tobacco and expenditure on tobacco over time.

Links to data on household expenditure on tobacco, availability of tobacco and the illicit tobacco market are provided at the bottom of this page.

Note: the charts are based on rounded data. Unrounded data are available in the corresponding data tables.

Long term trend

In the UK since 1987 (an arbitrarily chosen base year) prices of tobacco, as measured by the Tobacco Price Index (TPI), have increased more than the Retail Prices Index (RPI).

Consequently the Affordability of Tobacco Index has fallen over this period; in other words tobacco has become less affordable. For more information on the Affordability of Tobacco Index see Appendix B4: Technical Notes.

Last ten years (2009 to 2019)

Over the last ten years the price of tobacco, based on TPI, has increased by 100%.

The price of tobacco relative to retail prices (TPI relative to RPI) increased by 48%, whilst real households’ disposable income increased by 8% over the same period.

As a result, tobacco has become 27% less affordable since 2009.

Table S.3.1, Statistics on Smoking, England, 2020

Tobacco expenditure as a proportion of total household expenditure has decreased over time. It was 1.4% in 2019, decreasing from 2.8% in 1985 (an arbitrarily chosen base year).

Table S.3.2, Statistics on Smoking, England, 2020

Data on the average weekly household expenditure on cigarettes is provided in the Family spending in the UK reports.

Data on the availability of tobacco is provided in UK Tobacco Duty Statistics which covers duty on cigarettes, cigars, hand rolling tobacco (HRT) and other types of tobacco such as pipe and chewing tobacco.

Data on the illicit tobacco market is provided Tobacco tax gap estimates reports which presents estimates of the tax gap for tobacco products. The tax gap is the difference between the amount of tax that should be collected against what is actually collected.