UK laptop and tech prices 2010-2026: what ONS consumer price data show File: uk-tech-prices-2026.csv ATTRIBUTION Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0 Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Open Government Licence v3.0: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ Derived tables: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Keep the ONS attribution with any reuse. This analysis is Servnet's. It is not endorsed by ONS and implies no official status. SOURCES - ONS, Consumer price inflation consumption segment indices and price quotes (formerly "item indices and price quotes"): https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/datasets/consumerpriceindicescpiandretailpricesindexrpiitemindicesandpricequotes ONS: "The figures are provided for research purposes only, are not accredited official statistics, and users should exercise caution when drawing conclusions from their use." In this file these rows are labelled "ONS research data, not accredited official statistics". - ONS, Consumer price inflation time series (MM23): https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/datasets/consumerpriceindices D7BT (CPI all items index), D7G7 (CPI all items annual rate, used as published), D7EP and D7J3 (data processing equipment), L7GT and L7S3 (personal computers). Values as published are labelled "Accredited official statistics (ONS MM23 time series)". Figures this study computes from them (MM23 indices rebased to January 2010 or January 2015 = 100, 12-month averages of D7BT, and changes between those averages) are labelled "Derived by this study from accredited official statistics". - ONS, Shopping prices comparison tool (data download https://github.com/onsdigital/cpi-items-actions/raw/main/datadownload.xlsx); method described at https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/articles/shoppingpricescomparisontool/2023-05-03. ONS publishes 12-month (annual growth) changes for these items in its Shopping prices comparison tool from January 2022 (SD cards and USB sticks from January 2025, printers from January 2024). The 2025-26 changes quoted here are ONS's figures. Earlier 12-month changes in the CSV are computed by this study from ONS item indices. ONS's own annual growth and average prices are credited to ONS and labelled "Published ONS figure (Shopping prices comparison tool)". WHAT THE DATA ARE - Consumer prices including VAT (ONS: "Value Added Tax (VAT) and compulsory service charges are included, but delivery charges are not."). Not business, trade or contract prices. - Item indices are quality-adjusted where ONS adjusts them: hedonic regression for laptops since 2005, desktop PCs since 2003 and tablets since 2013 (ONS, "Review of hedonic quality adjustment in UK consumer price statistics and internationally", 2014). Tablets entered the basket in February 2012. - ONS publishes no individual prices for laptops, desktop PCs, tablets, PC peripherals or its "computer software" item, so there are no price rows for them here: none of the 25,673,236 unique price-quote rows ONS published for January 2010 to August 2026 is for these items. - Quote statistics are unweighted and not quality-adjusted. ONS designs its price sample to measure price change, not price levels. - Some quotes are identical shop-and-price quotes repeated across 10+ regions (for most items, centrally collected shops). Three bases are given where it matters: all quotes; distinct prices (each repeated shop-and-price group counted once per month); excluding the repeated quotes. - Printer quote medians are not published: almost all printer quotes are repeated central-shop prices. The printer index is included. CHAIN-LINKING ONS item indices run February-December against January of the same year. In the published item-index files the January figure is against the previous January up to 2017 and against the previous December from 2018; this was established from the data (ONS documentation describes chain-linking through January but not which base the published January item figure uses). With this rule the rebuilt ONS personal-computers series (L7GT) matches the accredited series to within 0.21% in every month from January 2015, and the chained item indices match ONS's Shopping prices comparison tool to within 0.004%. Chained item indices (index_monthly, measure chained_index) are on January 2010 = 100, or the item's first published month = 100 (tablets February 2012, SD cards February 2024, USB sticks February 2024, printers February 2023). The 12-month index averages in quotes_12m_window (measure item_index_12m_average) use the same base, stated in 'unit'. For an item first published in a February, ONS publishes that month relative to January = 100, so the following January's 12-month change is measured from ONS's January base, as ONS does in its Shopping prices comparison tool (tablets January 2013, printers January 2024, SD cards January 2025, USB sticks January 2025; marked in 'note'). ROWS AND TABLES (9,852 rows) index_monthly 4,040 rows chained index (base in 'unit') and ONS index as published, monthly change_12m 1,364 rows 12-month % change of each chained item index, computed by this study from ONS item indices official_annual_rate 528 rows ONS annual rates as published: D7G7 (CPI all items), L7S3 (personal computers), D7J3 (data processing equipment) quotes_monthly 3,310 rows median, p25, p75, distinct-price median and median excluding repeated quotes, per month quotes_12m_window 110 rows pooled 12-month distributions now, five and ten years earlier (period = now / five_years_ago / ten_years_ago) quotes_12m_window_change 54 rows % changes between those windows (all quotes, distinct-price basis, excluding repeated; item index; CPI) region_latest_12m 360 rows medians by ONS price-collection region, latest 12 months, with n shop_type_latest_12m 18 rows medians by shop type (multiple / independent), latest 12 months, with n ons_regional_index_2026 24 rows ONS regional consumption-segment indices (research data; January 2026 = 100), latest month ons_tool 44 rows ONS Shopping prices comparison tool: annual growth and average price, latest month and a year earlier COLUMNS table which table the row belongs to (above) series_id ONS item id (e.g. 630129 laptops) or MM23 series id (e.g. D7BT) series label period month (YYYY-MM), or window tag for quotes_12m_window window_start first month of a pooled window or 12-month change window_end last month of a pooled window or 12-month change group region or shop type, where relevant measure what the value is value the value unit unit and, for indices, the base n_quotes number of valid ONS price quotes behind the value n_distinct_prices quotes with each repeated shop-and-price group counted once small_sample true where the relevant n is below 30 status "ONS research data, not accredited official statistics", "Accredited official statistics (ONS MM23 time series)", "Derived by this study from accredited official statistics" or "Published ONS figure (Shopping prices comparison tool)" note basis notes CAVEATS - Consumer prices including VAT: prices offered to households in the shops and websites ONS samples. Not business, trade, volume or contract prices; delivery charges are not included. - Quality-adjusted indices: ONS adjusts laptop, desktop PC and tablet prices for specification changes (hedonic regression; laptops since 2005, desktop PCs since 2003, tablets since 2013). A falling index means a like-for-like specification got cheaper, not that the typical shelf price fell by the same amount. - ONS research data: ONS says of the item indices and price quotes: 'The figures are provided for research purposes only, are not accredited official statistics, and users should exercise caution when drawing conclusions from their use.' Only the MM23 series (D7BT, D7G7, D7EP, D7J3, L7GT, L7GU, L7S3) are accredited official statistics; figures this study computes from them are labelled 'Derived by this study from accredited official statistics'. - ONS publishes no individual prices for laptops, desktop PCs, tablets or PC peripherals, or for its 'computer software' item, so there is no laptop price level or average laptop price in this study. - Median recorded prices are unweighted and not quality-adjusted. ONS designs its price sample to measure price change, not price levels, so a median describes the quotes ONS recorded, not what every shop charges. - Some quotes are identical shop-and-price quotes repeated across 10+ regions (for most items, centrally collected shops); figures are shown on more than one basis where this matters. Printer quote medians are not published because almost all printer quotes are repeated central-shop prices. - Regional and shop-type medians describe the mix of shops and products priced, not like-for-like price differences. - ONS publishes 12-month (annual growth) changes for these items in its Shopping prices comparison tool from January 2022 (SD cards and USB sticks from January 2025, printers from January 2024). The 2025-26 changes quoted here are ONS's figures. Earlier 12-month changes in the CSV are computed by this study from ONS item indices. They are credited to ONS, not presented as new findings. - ONS data record how prices changed, not why. This study does not measure memory-chip prices and does not attribute any change to a cause. - No endorsement: the OGL 'does not grant you any right to use the Information in a way that suggests any official status or that the Information Provider and/or Licensor endorse you or your use of the Information.' NO PERSONAL DATA Aggregates only: no shop codes, no individual quotes, no names. Built by Servnet from ONS files (SHA-256 recorded) with data/research/ons-laptop-prices-2026/scripts (01_download.py, 02_build_dataset.py, 03_findings.py, 04_publish.py). Data to August 2026; built 2026-09-19.