Part IV. From Pearl Harbor to Normandy

STATISTICAL SUMMARY OF THE PERIOD¹

(a) National Income and Expenditure

	£ million						Percentages
	1938	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	1938	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945
1. National Income	4,707	6,978	7,562	8,115	8,310	8,355	100	100	100	100	100	100
2. National cost of consumers' goods and services	3,713	4,006	4,164	4,188	4,452	4,886	79	58	54	52	54	58
3. Government2 current expenditure:
i. War	327	3,643	3,945	4,481	4,481	3,827	7	52	52	55	54	46
ii Other	440	497	528	536	536	532	9	7	7	6	6	6
4. Net capital formation at home	297	-352	-322	-500	-500	-15	6	-5	-4	-5	-6	—
5. Net lending abroad	-70	-816	-663	-650	-659	-875	-1	-12	-9	-8	-8	-10
6. Net national expenditure at factor cost	4,707	6,978	7,652	8,115	8,310	8,355	100	100	100	100	100	100

Figures for national income and expenditure are net in that they exclude sums allowed for depreciation and maintenance and are at factor cost in that they include subsidies but exclude indirect taxes.

Source: Cmd. 7371 and Central Statistical Office

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(b) Personal Expenditure on Consumers' Goods and Services at 1938 Prices

	£ million
	1938	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945
1. Food	1,287	1,036	1,086	1,061	1,120	1,136
2. Alcoholic Beverages	285	287	267	270	274	297
3. Tobacco	177	196	206	204	205	225
4. Rent, rates and water charges	491	502	497	498	503	506
5. Fuel and light	197	205	199	187	193	198
6. Household goods	288	163	123	107	100	122
7. Clothing	446	275	273	247	275	279
8. Books, newspapers and magazines	64	61	63	67	73	77
9. Private motoring	127	30	17	8	8	25
10. Travel	163	148	174	186	188	215
11. Communication services	29	27	31	37	42	40
12. Entertainments	64	75	87	89	90	94
13. Other services	483	418	374	350	343	369
14. Other goods	177	131	109	110	113	120
15. Income in kind of the Armed Forces	17	98	106	136	152	146
16. Total of above items	4,295	3,652	3,612	3,557	3,679	3,849
17. Adjustment3	-7	19	28	34	27	72
18. Total	4,288	3,671	3,640	3,591	3,706	3,921

Source: Cmd. 7371 and Central Statistical Office

(c) Average Weekly Government War Expenditure: Exchequer Issues of Defence and Vote of Credit Expenditure

	£ million
1939 December	29,600
1941 December	87,800
1942 December	95,600
1943 December	82,400
1944 December	91,100

Source: Central Statistical Office

(d) Central Government Expenditure, Revenue and Borrowing

	£ million
Calendar Years	Expenditure	Revenue	Borrowing	Revenue as percentage of expenditure
1938	1,040	893	147	86
1941	5,052	2,172	2,880	43
1942	5,457	2,635	2,822	48
1943	6,047	3,139	2,908	52
1944	6,078	3,328	2,750	55
1945	5,583	3,293	2,290	59

Source: Cmd. 7371 and Central Statistical Office

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(e) Proportion of Personal Income Required to Meet Taxation

	£ million
	1938	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945
Personal Income	4,884	6,508	7,200	7,721	8,072	8,411
Direct Tax Payments	439	770	879	1,145	1,328	1,394
Indirect Taxes on consumption	611	1,045	1,199	1,282	1,294	1,359
less Subsidies on consumption	-36	-137	-168	-188	-202	-249
Total tax payments out of personal income	1,014	1,678	1,910	2,239	2,420	2,504
Tax payments as a percentage of personal income	21	26	27	29	30	30

NOTE:

The rise in the proportion of tax payments to personal income was not all due to increases in rates of taxation; it also reflected the increased consumption of highly taxed goods and services—beer,tobacco, entertainments.

Source: Cmd. 7371 and Central Statistical Office

(f) Prices and Wages

		Weekly wage rates: estimated increase in all industries4 Sept 1, 1939=100	Average weekly earnings in certain industries5 Oct. 1938=100	Cost of living Sept. 1, 1939=100	Price index of total consumers' expenditure 1938=100	Import prices Aug. 1939=100	Export prices Aug. 1939=100	Wholesale prices Aug. 1939=100
1939	Sept.	100	—	100	—	—	—	108
1941	Dec.	123-124	146	130	Year 1941=134	164	152	159
1942	Dec.	132	165	129	Year 1942=143	179	178	164
1943	Dec.	137–138	179	128	Year 1943=147	188	191	166
1944	Dec.	145-146	176	130	Year 1944=150	195	197	170
1945	June	148–149	180	132	Year 1945=153	N.A.	N.A.	173
1945	Dec.	152–153	174	131		195	194	173

N.A.=Not Available

Source: Central Statistical Office

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2. MANPOWER

(a) Total Population of Great Britain

		Thousands
	1939	1941	1942	1943	1944
TOTAL	46,466	46,875	47,039	47,300	47,627
0-13	9,231	9,101	9,091	9,150	9,239
M. 14-64	31,923	32,245	32,259	32,285	32,386
F. 14-59
M. 65 and over	5,312	5,529	5,688	5,865	6,002
F. 60 and over
MALES	22,332	22,600	22,656	22,770	22,975
0-13	4,672	4,615	4,614	4,648	4,698
14-64	15,887	16,140	16,140	16,155	16,261
65 and over	1,773	1,845	1,901	1,367	2,016
FEMALES	24,134	24,275	24,383	24,530	24,652
0-13	4,559	4,486	4,477	4,502	4,541
14-59	16,036	16,105	16,119	16,130	16,125
60 and over	3,539	3,684	3,787	3,898	3,986

NOTE:

(1) The figures have been given for Great Britain only, to correspond as closely as possible with the tables given elsewhere showing the distribution of manpower by industry. It should be noted however that in the manpower tables the figures for the Armed Forces include an unknown number of recruits from outside Great Britain (mainly from Northern Ireland and Eire) who are not included in the total population figures above.

(2) The figures for 1939 exclude men serving overseas in the Armed Forces and Merchant Navy (estimated at between 200,000 and 250,000). From 1940 onwards all members of the Armed Forces and Merchant Navy are included, whether at home or overseas. Prisoners of war in enemy hands are included in 1944, but are mainly excluded from earlier figures.

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(b) Distribution of Labour Force of Working Age in Great Britain

(i)				Thousands
	June 1939	June 1941	June 1942	June 1943	June 1944	June 1945
Working Population:
Total	19,570	21,332	22,056	22,286	22,008	21,649
Men	14,656	15,222	15,141	15,302	14,901	14,881
Women	5,094	6,110	6,915	7,254	7,107	6,768
Armed Forces:
Total	480	3,383	4,091	4,762	4,967	5,090
Men	480	3,278	3,784	4,300	4,500	4,653
Women	—	105	307	462	467	437
Civil Defence, N.F.S. and Police:
Total	80	383	384	323	282	127
Men	80	324	304	253	225	112
Women	—	59	80	70	57	15
Group I Industries:
Total	3,106	4,240	4,990	5,233	5,011	4,346
Men	2,600	3,140	3,285	3,305	3,180	2,891
Women	506	1,100	1,705	1,928	1,831	1,455
Group II Industries:
Total	4,683	4,845	4,983	5,027	5,100	5,191
Men	4,096	3,856	3,763	3,686	3,710	3,762
Women	587	989	1,220	1,341	1,390	1,429
Group III Industries:
Total	13,131	8,283.	7,520	6,861	6,574	6,752
Men	6,387	4,524	3,943	3,430	3,232	3,368
Women	3,744	3,759	3,577	3,431	3,342	3,384
Registered Insured Unemployed:
Total	1,270	198	87	60	54	103
Men	1,013	100	61	44	40	68
Women	257	98	26	16	14	35
Ex-Service men and women not yet in employment:
Total	—	—	—	20	20	40
Men	—	—	—	13	14	27
Women	—	—	—	7	6	13

NOTE:	(1) The figures include men aged 14-64 and women aged 14-59, excluding those in private domestic service. Part-time women workers are included, two being counted as one unit. The figures refer to Great Britain only except for the Armed Forces, which include an unknown number of volunteers from Northern Ireland, Eire, etc.
	(2) Group I covers metal manufacture, engineering, motors, aircraft and other vehicles, shipbuilding and ship-repairing, metal goods manufacture, chemicals, explosives, oils etc.
	Group II covers agriculture, mining, national and local government services, gas, water and electricity supply, transport and shipping.
	Group III covers food, drink and tobacco, textiles ,clothing and other manufactures, building and civil engineering, distribution trades, commerce, banking and other services.

Source: Ministry of Labour and National Service and Central Statistical Office

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(ii)				Thousands
		Mid-1939	Mid-1943	Mid-1945
Total Labour Force		19,750	22,286	21,649
Armed forces and Civil Defence		560	5,085	5,217
Supplies and equipment for the Forces		1,270	5,121	3,830
	Group I Industries	1,070	4,310	3,132
	Group III Industries	200	811	698
Manufacturers for Export		9906	252	410
	Group I Industries	450	90	200
	Group III Industries	540	162	210
Manufacturers for the Home Market		5,555	2,373	2,580
Other Industries and Services		11,105	9,375	9,469
Unemployed		1,270	60	103
Ex-service not yet employed		—	20	40

Source: Central Statistical Office

3. SUPPLIES FROM ABROAD

(a) United Kingdom External Disinvestment

(as far as recorded: probably an under-estimate)

						£ Million
	1941	1942	1943	1944	Jan.–June 1945	Total Sept. 1939 to June 1945
Realisation of external capital assets	274	227	189	143	63	1,118
Increase in external liabilities7, 8	564	519	647	608	282	2,879
Decrease or increase (-) in gold and U.S. dollar reserves8, 9	-23	-75	-150	-99	-32	152
Unallocated	5	3	3	11	16	49
TOTAL	820	674	689	663	329	4,198

NOTE:

The figures given in the above table are those given in Cmd. 6707 and are the only ones at present available. The totals given in Cmd. 7099 for the years 1940-1945 are however slightly smaller so that the figures in the table will need slight adjustments throughout.

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(b) United States Lend-Lease to the British Empire

							$ million
		1941 (March to Dec.)	1942	1943	1944	1945 (Jan.–Aug.)	Total March 1941-Aug. 1945
Ships (sail away)		65	195	1,078	540	229	2,107
Munitions destined for:
	United Kingdom	86	987	2,797	3,807	971	8,648
	Rest of Empire and other war theatres	100	1,158	2,131	2,294	1,203	6,886
Other goods destined for:
	United Kingdom	576	1,404	1,782	2,405	21,275	7,442
	Rest of Empire	10	227	436	583	390	1,646
Services		245	786	807	1,137	369	3,344
Total aid to British Empire		1,082	4,757	9,031	10,766	4,437	30,073
Aid to Russia		20	1,376	2,436	4,074	2,768	10,670
Aid to other countries							2,872
Total Lend-Lease Aid							43,615

Source: Central Statistical Office

(c) Comparison of Lend-Lease to the British Empire and Reciprocal Aid to the United States up to VJ-Day

			In $ millions		In £ millions sterling
			Lend-lease aid from U.S.	Reciprocal aid to U.S.	Lend-lease aid from U.S.	Reciprocal aid to U.S.
U.K.
	Ships and construction		2,170	910	301	227
	Military stores		13,823	2,014	1,975	288
	Petroleum		1,85010	1,187	46210	297
	Other goods		6,26310	361	1,56610	0
	Services		2,980	1,195	745	299
		TOTAL	27,023	5,667	5,049	1,201
Australia			1,570	1,041	296	216
New Zealand			271	248	52	54
South Africa			296	1	53	—11
India			913	610	178	134
		TOTAL	30,073	7,567	5,628	1,605

NOTE:

Conversion from dollars to pounds sterling and conversely at $7 to £1 for military stores (including ships) and at $4 to £1 for all other goods and services

Source: R. G. D. Allen, 'Mutual Aid between the U.S. and British Empire', Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Part III, 1946

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(d) Export and Produce and Manufacture of the United Kingdom

	Value as recorded £ million		Index of volume 1935=100
	Including Munitions	Excluding Munitions	Including Munitions	Excluding Munitions
1938	470.8		98
1941	365.4		55
1942	391.4	271.3	52	36
1943	337.5	233.5	42	29
1944	328.3	266.3	38	31
1945	434.5	399.3	49	45

NOTE:	(1)As the figures up to the end of 1941 do not show munitions separately, it is impossible to get comparable figures.
	(2) The index of volume is calculated on quantities revalued at 1935 prices and expressed as a percentage of the quarterly average in 1935.

Source: Board of Trade

(e) Shipping

(i) Gains and losses of non-tankers on the British Register or on time charter to the United Kingdom

(1,600 gross tons and over)