GDP of the UK 1948-2020

The gross domestic product of the United Kingdom in 2020 was 1.96 trillion British pounds, a fall of approximately 216 billion pounds compared to 2019, when the size of the UK economy was 2.17 trillion pounds. This huge drop in the GDP was brought about by the Coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, which caused severe damage to many industries, particularly in the service sector upon which the economy is heavily reliant.

 A return to growth in 2021?

Annual GDP growth figures show that the UK economy shrank by a record 9.9 percent in 2020, compared with growth rates of 1.4 percent in 2019 and 1.3 percent in 2018. Despite this, it is forecast that the UK economy will grow by four percent in 2021, and then by 7.3 percent in 2022, and recent monthly growth figures for April 2021 showed that the UK economy grew by 2.3 percent. The shape of the UK's economic recovery will obviously be heavily influenced by the course of the Coronavirus pandemic, and the ability of the country to keep new cases and variants under control.

 How big is the UK economy compared to others?

As of 2020, the UK had the sixth largest economy in world, behind the United States, China, Japan, Germany, and India. Among European nations, this meant that the UK currently has the second largest economy in Europe, although the economy of France, Europe's third largest economy, is of a very similar size. The UK's ranking may fall in the coming years however, especially as the UK economy is expected to have shrank by more than most other European countries throughout the course of 2020.