For each finding, add an economic explanation and one limitation. Findings stay in this browser.
Set where you live, your age group, a job you're interested in and the household most like yours. Every other section uses these answers. They are saved only in this browser.
A short portrait of any council area and six headline cards. Open What matters to me to choose your priorities: the cards reorder and the two places are compared on what you care about. Explore the detail for every measure, differences within the area and links between indicators.
Choose a household or type your own monthly spending. You get an estimated inflation rate for that spending pattern, compared with official CPI. Start with Predict first to guess which household faces the highest rate.
Add up to five jobs to compare pay ranges, type a salary to see where it ranks, and see how pay differs between age groups for men and women.
Compare staying where you are with moving somewhere else: official pay, rent and housing figures, then an illustrative monthly budget you can edit, then the things money can't measure. Finish with your own justified decision.
Click Save next to any figure to collect it, then add an explanation and a limitation. Your findings are included when you copy or print.
Compare the UK with any country, then press Play to watch 217 economies change since 1990. Click a bubble to compare with that country.
Each section ends with classroom questions and a "Handle with care" note explaining what the figures can and can't tell you. Sources are listed at the bottom of each section.
See what official data says about your town, your prices, your pay and your place in the world.
Pick one question. Each follows the same steps: choose, look, explain, save.
Explore any of 361 UK council areas and compare it with another.
Choose what matters to you, or start from an example.
Think about: Does higher income lead to the same conclusion as higher wellbeing? Whose experience might the local average conceal? (See Differences within the area below.)
Each dot is a council area. Pick a preset, or choose two measures.
Official inflation is an average. Choose a household or enter your spending to see an estimate for that pattern.
Which household faces the highest estimated inflation over the last 12 months? Make your prediction, then reveal the results.
Enter roughly what you spend each month.
How much prices in each category changed over the period you chose, from ONS consumer price indices.
How much each category adds to the estimate, in percentage points.
Each contribution is the category's share of your spending multiplied by its price change. A small adjustment lines the model up with official CPI, so the contributions plus the adjustment add up to the estimate.
The estimated 12-month inflation rate each month for this spending pattern, compared with official CPI.
Hover or tap the chart to read a month. With a keyboard, select the chart and use the left and right arrow keys.
Your pattern matches the average household, so the two lines sit on top of each other.
A pay rise only leaves you better off if it beats the rise in prices for what you buy.
Nominal pay is the amount in pounds. Real pay allows for rising prices. This uses gross pay and ignores changes in tax, so it is a simplified illustration.
What 382 jobs pay, how pay varies by age and region, and where a salary ranks. Gross annual pay, full-time employees, 2025.
Add up to five jobs to compare.
Each bar shows the middle 80% of earners (10th to 90th percentile). The darker band is the middle 50%, and the dot is the median.
Median full-time pay by age group, men and women, 2025. These are different people in one year, not one person's career.
The shaded band shows the middle 50% of all full-time earners. The chart compares different people in the same year, so it doesn't predict how an individual's pay will grow.
Type a full-time salary to see what share of UK full-time employees earn less.
Median full-time pay where people work, 2025.
Occupations with at least 20,000 full-time jobs, by median pay.
Should you stay or move? Compare the figures, try a budget, then make and justify your decision.
Area averages from ONS. They describe each place, not what you personally would earn or pay.
Every figure is an assumption you can change.
Rent starts from the ONS average for the home type you chose. Everything else starts from your My Inflation basket. Bills and travel start as simple guesses. The table below shows how each spending category is allocated.
For each factor, say which place it favours for you, and tick the ones that matter most.
Compare life in the UK with any other country, then watch how 217 economies have changed since 1990.
Each bubble is a country, sized by population. Press play to watch from 1990.
Hover or tap a bubble for its figures, or use the table below. Where a country has no figure for the year shown, its most recent figure from up to three years earlier is used, and the tooltip gives that year. Bubbles with a dashed outline are beyond the axis range and are shown at the edge.
Resources and courses to help students and teachers get the most from Economics and beyond.