Here the Financial Times data team looks at the past seventy years in a series of charts. The population of the United Kingdom increased by around a third during the Queen’s reign, from 50.5 million in 1952 to 67.5 million today. But the reasons for the change shifted over the period. In the first decade, there was the post-war baby boom, which was tempered by the advent of the contraceptive pill in the 1960s and the increase in women’s labor force participation. During the 1950s and 1960s, emigration from the Commonwealth, particularly the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent, was balanced by Britons relocating overseas. However, net immigration increased sharply after the millennium as new members joined the EU, encouraging waves of immigration that created a country far more ethnically diverse than in 1952. About 14 percent of today’s population was born abroad.
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Social norms have undergone a huge transformation under the Queen. Family structures are no longer as rigid as they once were, partly reflecting the declining influence of religion. Legislation in the 1960s and early 1970s legalized abortion and homosexuality and made divorce much easier. Divorce and single-parent families were socially stigmatized in 1952 but are commonplace today. Last year, for the first time, the majority of children were born to single parents. Same-sex partnerships were first allowed in England and Wales in 2004 and marriage in 2013. One of the biggest social changes during her reign was the economic activity of women. Women workers increased during both world wars, replacing men in the forces, but in peacetime many industries, particularly mining and manufacturing, were almost exclusively male. The proportion of women in the workforce has increased by a third over the past fifty years, partly due to improvements in contraception but also due to the economy’s shift from heavy industry to service activities. This shift is seen in higher education, vital to a modern economy. Female graduates were once a rarity, but women now make up the majority of first degrees awarded.
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In 1952, the UK was still the world’s third largest economy, behind only the superpowers the US and the Soviet Union, and became the world’s third largest nuclear power later that year. Now, the UK is the eighth of the ten largest economies when measured in purchasing power parity terms. Even with straight cash, India’s economy, a former British colony, is expected to outsize the UK’s this year.
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The early years of the Queen’s reign were marked by an expanding economy and broad party consensus on economic policy. Governments, Conservative as well as Labour, supported taxation to fund the welfare state. Large parts of the industry were state-owned. That consensus disappeared in the 1970s as inflation rose—peaking at 27 percent in mid-1975—and the first serious recession since the war saw the return of mass unemployment. After Margaret Thatcher’s government from 1979 to 1990 a new consensus emerged, on low taxation and spending, and market-oriented solutions to economic problems The Covid pandemic and the shock to energy prices from the war in Ukraine have posed severe tests for the government, with double-digit inflation and recession expected next year
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Dean Acheson, former US Secretary of State, said in 1962 that Great Britain “has lost an empire but has not yet found a role”. The problem is clearly illustrated by the UK’s changing trading patterns. In the early 1950s, trade was still concentrated in former colonies. Since joining the EEC in 1973, it has been increasingly dominated by its European neighbours. Relations with Europe have been a major issue in UK politics, culminating in the 2016 Brexit vote and the country’s eventual withdrawal from the EU.
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Many aspects of the economy and society since the 1950s have seen a decline in collective provision and identification, replaced by an individualism defined by ownership. The transport sector has long been dominated by privately owned cars. In housing, the Thatcher government’s attempt to create a “property ownership democracy” and the consequent divestment of council-owned housing increased the proportion of owner-occupiers. These changes were not without problems. Governments of all stripes have had to grapple with the impact of widespread car ownership on the environment and the impact of house prices on consumer confidence and, consequently, economic growth
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Average wages in the UK generally rose above inflation for most of the period. But there was a sharp break from this trend after the global financial crisis. Unions, weakened by the Thatcher government’s reforms in the 1980s and falling membership, found themselves unable to bid for wage increases. With the return of high inflation in 2022, union militancy has re-emerged.
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The late queen received fifteen different prime ministers during her seventy years on the throne. The first, Sir Winston Churchill was born in 1874, the last, Liz Truss, more than a century later in 1975. The Conservative party was in power for two-thirds of its reign, including five years as the dominant coalition partner with the Liberals Democrats.
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The old political identities have collapsed during her reign. The Conservative and Labor parties—with largely class loyalties—claimed 97 percent of the popular vote in the 1951 general election. The Labor government won 48.8 percent of the vote—and lost. Voters are now much more likely to support other parties. Between a quarter and a third of the electorate in every election since 1997 except 2017, where both Labor and the Tories polled above 40%. In 2015, the nationalist SNP won over 50 percent of the popular vote in Scotland and 56 out of 59 seats. The last party to win a majority of the Scottish vote was the Tories in 1955.
