What would a basic income cost in the United Kingdom?
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Total cost per year
53.4 billion British pounds
about 70.3 billion US dollars
69.5 million people × 64 British pounds a month × 12 months
Compared with
- Government expense (central) (2023)4.3%
- Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2024)5%
- Tax revenue (central government) (2024)6.5%
- GDP (nominal) (2025)1.8%
The United Kingdom in numbers
The United Kingdom has a population of 69.5 million (2025) and a GDP of 3.04 trillion British pounds (about 4 trillion US dollars) in 2025.
Paying everyone 64 British pounds a month would cost 53.4 billion British pounds a year (about 70.3 billion US dollars), or 1.8% of GDP. That equals 4.3% of central government expense (2023), 5% of its revenue (2024), and 6.5% of its tax revenue (2024).
Children only (under 18: 14.4 million) would cost 11 billion British pounds a year (0.36% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 55.1 million), 42.3 billion British pounds (1.4%).
Default amount: 64 British pounds a month is the World Bank's international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), converted into British pounds with the World Bank's PPP conversion factor for household consumption (2025) and rounded to two significant figures. It is a reference point, not a policy proposal; change it above.
How to read this
This is the gross cost: the total paid out. The real net cost depends on which taxes fund it, which benefits or tax breaks it replaces and whether the payment is taxed. The population, budget and GDP figures are not all from the same year (see the sources).
Sources for the figures
- Population
- World Bank: population, total (SP.POP.TOTL), and population by single year of age 0 to 17 (SP.POP.AG00.FE.IN … SP.POP.AG17.MA.IN), 2025
- SP.POP.AG00.FE.IN … SP.POP.AG17.MA.IN
- Government expense and tax revenue
- World Bank: central government expense, revenue excluding grants and tax revenue, % of GDP (GC.XPN.TOTL.GD.ZS, GC.REV.XGRT.GD.ZS, GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS), 2023, 2024
- Default amount
- World Bank: international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), June 2025 update
- World Bank: PPP conversion factor, household final consumption (PA.NUS.PRVT.PP), 2025
- Retrieved from the World Bank API on November 9, 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Government figures are central government, as a share of GDP in their own year, applied to the latest GDP.