Civometry

HM Treasury · Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2025, chapter 4: expenditure by function

Spending on defence, real terms

Year ending March 2025 Final

£63.6bnbillion, 2024-25 prices

Spending on defence, real terms was £63.6bn in the year ending March 2025, up 7.6% (£4.5bn) from £59.1bn in the year ending March 2024.

▲ 7.6% · +£4.5bn against Year ending March 2024 (previous period)

  1. HM Treasury count
  2. Year ending March 2025
  3. published 17 July 2025
  4. Table 4.3
  5. row “2. Defence(2)”
  6. column “2024-25”
  7. cell value 63.6

Year ending March 2025 is the highest figure in the published series: £63.6bn. Rule: highest of the 23 periods published here (Year ending March 2003 to Year ending March 2025).

Year ending March 2003 to Year ending March 2025

Spending on defence, real terms: Year ending March 2003 to Year ending March 2025LabourLabourLabourLabourCoalitionCoalitionConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeLabour020406020052010201520202025Year ending March 2003: £47.5bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2004: £49.5bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2005: £49.8bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2006: £50.4bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2007: £51bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2008: £52.1bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2009: £54.9bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2010: £55.5bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2011: £56.8bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2012: £54.9bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2013: £50.6bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2014: £49.8bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2015: £49.6bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2016: £49.1bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2017: £48.7bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2018: £50bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2019: £50.9bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2020: £52.2bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2021: £52.3bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2022: £57.4bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2023: £61.2bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2024: £59.1bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2025: £63.6bn £ billion, 2024-25 prices · published 17 July 2025
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

What this measures

Public sector spending on defence in real terms, at 2024-25 prices using the GDP deflator.

What this doesn’t measure

Spending as a share of GDP, or spending in cash terms.

Important caveat

PESA classifies spending by function using the UN COFOG framework, so "health" is every public body's spending on health services, not the Department of Health's budget, and "defence" follows COFOG rather than the NATO definition. Figures are outturn for the whole public sector including local government and public corporations. Cash figures rise with inflation; the real-terms table restates them at 2024-25 prices with the GDP deflator. Classification changes are footnoted in the table: student loans from 2011-12, Network Rail from 2011-12 and the treatment of EU transactions after 2020. Total managed expenditure includes accounting adjustments that are not allocated to any function.

Revision history

No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.

Source

Publisher
HM Treasury
Publication
Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2025, chapter 4: expenditure by function
Release
PESA 2025, published 17 July 2025
Source file
PESA_2025_CP_Chapter_4_tables.xlsx
File SHA-256
bc275bc1efed362ba3ed15fb27db010692caa879d201897dc5d64c46bc942570
Retrieved
3 September 2026
Sheet
4_3
Table
Table 4.3
Row
2. Defence(2)
Column
2024-25
Cell value
63.6
Geography
United Kingdom
Unit
£ billion, 2024-25 prices
API
/api/metrics/spend_defence_real · /series · /vintages

Government periods

Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.

Conservative 2019–2024£50.9bnYear ending March 2019£59.1bnYear ending March 2024↑ 16.1%
Conservative 2017–2019£48.7bnYear ending March 2017£50.9bnYear ending March 2019↑ 4.5%
Conservative 2015–2017£49.6bnYear ending March 2015£48.7bnYear ending March 2017↓ 1.8%
Coalition 2010–2015£55.5bnYear ending March 2010£49.6bnYear ending March 2015↓ 10.6%
Labour 2005–2010£49.8bnYear ending March 2005£55.5bnYear ending March 2010↑ 11.4%

Full comparison with chart

Release
PESA 2025 · publication page
Last updated
17 July 2025
Next release expected
Not yet announced (estimated from the usual cadence)