Max Friedrich

UK Government Performance Over The Last Three Decades

The aim of this page is to help visualise how the UK governments have performed over the long term in setting social and economic policy.

I have compiled this data from official government sources. Each line plot shows the relative change in performance for each metric over time. The plots are not directly comparable. Unfortunately, as some metrics are newer than others, they have only being calculated for more recent periods. This obviously further reduces inter-plot comparability. Therefore, some plots have fewer data than others. Additionally, some plots use monthly data whilst others use triennial data. It is only possible to compare trends between plots, as their scales and ratios differ wildly.

I have tried to ensure that there is as little bias in how the data is represented and processed as possible. Unfortunately, this data does not live update, as the sources are Excel spreadsheets with unpredictable URLs. Therefore, they are not computer-parseable.

Hopefully, this is useful for people who are curious about the performance of the UK state. It may even be helpful in comparing the rhetoric of the media and political entities with what the data, and hopefully reality, would suggest.

NB. This page is optimised for wider screens. It works even better when the screen is tall enough to see many graphs at a time.

Economy

GDP1

1990 - 2023

This plot shows the growth of the gross domestic product(GDP) over time compared to 1990. The unit is in billions of pounds. Higher is better.

1.27B 2.26B Blair 2008 Coalition Johnson COVID Truss


Debt to GDP2

1990 - 2024

This plot shows the public sector net borrowing excluding public sector banks as a percentage of GDP over time compared to 1990. Lower is better.

0% 4.5% Blair 2008 Coalition COVID


Consumer Price Inflation3

1989 - 2023

This plot shows the Consumer Price Inflation annual rate over time compared to 1989. The unit is the percentage difference from the 2015 value. Higher is worse, but lower is not always better.

5.7% 6.8% Blair 2008 Coalition Brexit COVID


Crime

Unemployment rate4

1990 - 2023

This plot shows the unemployment rate over time compared to 1990. The unit is percentage of the 16+ population that is unemployed. Lower is better.

7.1% 4% Blair 2008 Coalition COVID


Serious Crime Rate5

2010 - 2023

This plot shows the number of times the police recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument over time. It also includes rape and sexual assault. This dataset has a number of problems including some forces failing to record data and the data being recorded in different ways. The highest number of offences was recorded 52,005. The lowest was 26,694. Lower is better.

34k 47k Coalition Cameron May COVID


Re-offending rate6

2008 - 2022

This plot shows the proportion of offenders who re-offend in England and Wales over time. The unit is a percentage of the total number of offenders. Lower is better.

32% 25% Coalition May COVID


Health

Healthy life expectancy - mean7

2011 - 2022

This plot shows the healthy life expectancy. This is the average number of years a person can expect to live in good health. These numbers are the combined average for men and woman in England. The unit is in years. Higher is better.

63.5 62.5 2015 COVID


Elective waiting times8

April 2008 - March 2024

This plot shows the number of patients waiting more than 18 weeks for their first treatment since being referred. The unit is the number of patients. Lower is better.

0.89M 3.2M 2008 Coalition COVID


Education - OECD PISA9

2006 - 2022

This plot shows the combined mean OECD PISA scores for Maths, Reading and Science over time. The unit is a score out of 600. This dataset only has six data points. The UK is above the OECD average. Higher is better.

501 494 2015 2022


  1. Gross Domestic Product: chained volume measures: Seasonally adjusted £m 1990-2023 SOURCE: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/timeseries/abmi/pn2 ↩
  2. Public sector net borrowing excluding public sector banks SOURCE: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicsectorfinance/bulletins/publicsectorfinances/may2024#borrowing-in-earlier-financial-years ↩
  3. CPIH ANNUAL RATE 00: ALL ITEMS 2015=100 (%) 1989-2023 SOURCE: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/timeseries/l55o/mm23 ↩
  4. Unemployment rate (aged 16 and over, seasonally adjusted): % SOURCE: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment/timeseries/mgsx/lms ↩
  5. Number of police recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument and percentage change SOURCE: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/offencesinvolvingtheuseofweaponsdatatables ↩
  6. Proportion of offenders who re-offend in England and Wales from 2008⁄09 to 2021⁄22 SOURCE: Statista from GOV.UK; Ministry of Justice UK ↩
  7. Healthy life expectancy mean of male and female in England 2011-2022 SOURCE: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/datasets/healthstatelifeexpectancyallagesuk ↩
  8. Number of patients waiting more than 18 months for their first treatment since being referred April 2008 - March 2024 SOURCE: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/data-and-charts/waiting-times-non-urgent-treatment ↩
  9. Combined mean OECD PISA scores for Math SOURCE: https://www.oecd.org/publication/pisa-2022-results/ ↩