Can anyone tell me how much £10 UK pounds in 1955 would be worth in todays terms?

Question

I know it is a lot more than £10 today, but I need a sense of what that could buy you in Scotland in 1955.

Answer 1

Someone suggested a link to make the above calculation. I tried it, and it did not work.

Instead I went to a website of the UK government, and found monthly data on their Retail Price Index (equivalent of U.S. CPI). There, I calculated that the average yearly RPI was 5.9583% (close to 6.0%). Then I calculated the current value of 10 pounds as follows: 10(1 + 5.9583%)^51 years = 191 pounds in 2006. That's pretty amazing! This phenomenon is often referred to as the miracle of compounding rates.

One has to understand that the increase in value from 10 pounds to 191 pounds does not represent any increase in wealth. The wealth you hold is exactly the same and can be expressed as either 10 pounds expressed in 1955 pounds or 191 pounds in 2006 pounds.

You run into this issue whenever you watch old movies. Whenever they quote prices in their dialog, these prices seem ridiculously cheap. They are really not once you factor the date of the time when these prices were expressed.

If you need further clarification on the issue, you can contact me through "Answer."

Answer 2

I started work as an apprentice carpenter in 1955. a 45 hour weeks pay at that time was £1.19.9p (Just about £2 in to-days money. My first tradesman pay on completion of my apprenticeship in 1960 was £12 for the week. Maybe you can work out your answer from these figures. A night at the cinema cost 2s.6p (25p)

Answer 3

i would say about £150 in what you could buy. Because a portion of chips back them was about 2 pence. It was well before my time but i heard you could go to the cinema for 2 plus bus fare + a portion of fish and chips on the way home and still have change from a fiver and that was in the 60's so yeah i would say about £150 easy

Answer 4

I don't know if it helps but to give you an idea a newspaper cost 1.5d (less than 1p), a small refrigerator was on sale for £6.16s (£6.8) so I'd say it was probably equivalent to around £100 (based on a student fridge with similar capacity from Argos).
For nostalgia you might like to visit the site below where I found the newspaper ads...

Answer 5

Update got an answer that might help

Answer 6

may be a month's grocery for a family.

Answer 7

£175.49