This is our sixth annual report on education spending funded by the Nuffield Foundation. It seeks to provide a clear and consistent comparison of the level and changes in spending per student across different stages of education. Our dedicated website (https://ifs.org.uk/education-spending) further provides easy access to our latest analysis, figures and the underlying methodology.
Following on from cuts to most areas of education spending during the 2010s, the government has provided additional funding at successive spending reviews between 2019 and 2021. However, rising levels of inflation and cost pressures have dampened the effects of extra funding. The government also has high ambitions for education to play a major role in ‘levelling up’ poorer areas of the country. In this year’s annual report, we therefore focus on geographic differences in education spending across each stage of education, as well as the extent to which education spending is targeted at pupils from more disadvantaged backgrounds.
1. In 2022–23, total public spending on education in the UK stood at £116 billion (including the cost of issuing student loans and in 2023–24 prices). In real terms, this represents an 8% or £10 billion fall since 2010–11.
2. Education spending has also fallen as a share of national income, from about 5.6% of national income in 2010–11 down to about 4.4% in 2022–23. This is about the same share of national income as in the early 2000s, mid 1980s and late 1960s. There has been no long-run increase in the share of national income devoted to public spending on education, despite large rises in education participation over the long run.
