Figures from the Family Expenditure Survey (the FES), published by ONS, measure how much we Britons spend on buying food from retail outlets. Over the last twenty years, the survey has shown that the average expenditure per person has fallen by about £65 a year, from a figure £765 per person in the early 1980s to £700 in the late 1990s. The graph summarises this trend.

Over the same 20 years, expenditure on eating out has increased from about £300 per person each year to almost £400 a year.

Where consumers buy food

Note: The FES measures household expenditure. For our purposes we have translated these figures into per person expenditure. In addition, the FES includes information about a portion of eating out expenditure – we have excluded this from the retail figures and added it to the out of home figures.

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