What’s the price of a stamp?
A UK First Class Stamp costs £1.65p
Stamp price effective from October 7th, 2024 – October 2024 Stamp Price Increase
The price of a first class stamp
A UK first class stamp today costs £1.65p. That’s is a rise of 22% since April, 32% over the last year and a staggering 73.7% change over the last two years.
Despite this large rise, Royal Mail – the postal service operator – is still lobbying for a change in the Universal Service Obligation which mandates they must deliver to every UK address, six days a week.
Historical price of first class stamps
The frequency of uk postage stamp price increases has increased over the last 2 years, from an annual increase to twice annual increases in April and October.
The price of first-class stamps in the United Kingdom has seen a dramatic increase since 1971, far outpacing general inflation. In 1971, a first-class stamp cost just 3 pence. By October 2024, that price has risen to £1.65, a 5,400% increase over 53 years.
This rise significantly exceeds the UK’s general inflation rate, which would have brought the 1971 price to only about 37 pence by 2024. The 2020s have seen particularly sharp rises – for instance, the price of a stamp jumped from 76 pence in 2020 to £1.65 in October 2024, more than doubling in just four years.
About this site
On this site we single-mindedly track stamp price inflation since decimalisation in 1971. In addition to answering the simple question how much is a first class stamp, we track and show the price of a second class stamp and the annual percentage increases of stamp prices.
The price of a stamp in the UK has risen steadily over the years. Postage stamps are a great demonstration of inflation over the years, and in fact postal services remain one of the items in the ‘basket of goods’ used to calculate Retail Price Inflation in the UK.
The Royal Mail are the Designated Universal Service Provider (“DUSP”) and they set the postage rates – but are required by Ofcom to provide a universal postal service, including delivery and collection of letters, six days per week, Monday to Saturday.
There is a cap on the price of 2nd class stamps which rises on 1st April annually. The purpose of the cap is to ensure a basic, affordable, universal postal service is available to all, especially vulnerable, consumers and that users of postal services are protected to an extent from ongoing price increases.