Consumer trends, UK: October to December 2025

• Household spending growth (adjusted for inflation) is estimated to have grown by 0.1% in Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2025.

• The largest contributors to household spending quarterly growth were miscellaneous goods and services, and transport; while recreation and culture was the largest negative contributor.

• Compared with Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2024, household spending is estimated to have grown by 0.4%.

• Household spending is estimated to have increased by 0.8% annually in 2025.

• This release contains datasets for Consumer trends Quarter 4 2025; for further commentary on these data please see our Gross domestic product (GDP) quarterly national accounts bulletin.

Household final consumption expenditure (HHFCE) is a measure of household spending on goods and services, which is produced as part of the compilation of the UK's National Accounts.

HHFCE estimates are aligned to the definitions of the internationally agreed System of National Accounts (SNA) and as such they may differ from household expenditure figures produced for other purposes. For example, in line with the SNA, HHFCE estimates will not include the cost of buying or extending a house; investments in valuables; or second-hand purchases.

A detailed explanation of HHFCE concepts, coverage and expenditure definitions can be found in our Consumer trends quality and methodology information (QMI).

Data in this bulletin

The quarterly consumer trends data are typically published around 90 days after the end of the quarter.

The HHFCE estimates in Consumer trends are a component of the expenditure approach to measuring gross domestic product (GDP). The three approaches to GDP: expenditure, income and output, are reconciled through a balancing process as part of the compilation of the UK National Accounts. Our Consumer trends release publishes estimates that reflect this balancing process.

All data in this bulletin, unless specified, are presented in chained volume measures (CVM), otherwise known as "real" measures. This means the effect of price changes is removed from the data (in other words, the data are deflated).

The reference year and last base year for all CVM estimates is 2023.

For the quarterly national accounts from Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2020, we began publishing consumer trends in data-only format, and concentrating mainly on changes at the two-digit Classification of individual consumption by purpose (COICOP) level. Data at the lower levels are available but should be used with caution and may be subject to larger than normal revisions.

Revisions

In line with the National Accounts Revisions Policy, the data in this publication are open to revision from Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2024. This release contains data that are consistent with the GDP quarterly national accounts, UK: October to December 2025, published on 31 March 2026.

Impact of coronavirus (COVID-19)

From Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2020, estimates of HHFCE, along with other components of GDP, are subject to more uncertainty than in the past, because of the challenges we faced in collecting the data under government-imposed public health restrictions. In the case of HHFCE, these challenges were compounded by the suspension of data collection for the International Passenger Survey (IPS) between March 2020 and January 2021, and the temporary suspension of the Living Costs and Food Survey (LCF) between 16 March and 14 April 2020.

Quality

Some of the more detailed expenditure categories may include an element of forecasting because of data not being available in a timely fashion. However, these forecasts form a very small proportion of total HHFCE.

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our Consumer trends QMI.

Accredited official statistics

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in January 2012. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled "accredited official statistics".