[sd9]

Counterpoint: gov.uk is widely regarded as one of the best government websites in the world

[nomel]

I'm always curious how much these sorts of things costs each citizen, per year, from a more wholistic view?

[sd9]

Let's do some maths.

There are 35,000,000 taxpayers [1], 70,000,000 citizens [2]. Say there are 5,000 people responsible for gov.uk and that each are paid £80k/year.

    Total budget: 5000 * £80k = £400M
    Cost per taxpayer per year: £400M / 35M = £11.43
    Cost per citizen per year: £400M / 70M = £5.71

This source [3] cites projected GDS budget for 2026 as £420M. Previous years have been £273M (2025), and £256M (2024). So the fag packet calculations are not far off.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-tax-liabilit... [2] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populati... [3] https://www.publictechnology.net/2025/07/14/government-and-p...