Spending
The largest monthly outgoing expense for UK students is their rent followed by supermarket shopping. On the bright side, average rent costs have declined by 10% nationwide over the last year. Students in Glasgow and Aberdeen spend slightly more on items and activities than they do on rent. Outside of necessities, the majority of students’ income is spent on social activities, averaging £42.40 a month. London-based students spend the least time socialising yet they top the table with the most money spent on clothes, shoes and accessories, at double the national average.
- London surpasses Manchester to become the most fashion-focused student city. London-based students spend an average of £64.20 per month on clothes and fashion, nearly twice the national average of £32.60
- Oxford and Leicester fall on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to alcohol spend. Oxford's students spend the most on alcohol at £44.90 per month. This is over twice as much as students at Leicester, who were the lowest spenders on alcohol this year at an average of £18 per month.
- The most expensive place for alcoholic drinks in the UK goes to the South of England, with the average expected price for a pint increasing by over a pound year-on-year. London takes the lead for the highest expected cost of a spirit mixer, at £5.50, while Scottish cities all fall below the national average and within the £3.40 to £3.70 range.
- Costs of student household bills have almost halved over the last two years since the 2018 index, with UK-wide averages dipping from £45 to £24 per month in 2020.
- Students based in York are making the most of the reduced household bills, carrying expenses as low as just £5.80 per month. This represents a tenth of what students in Aberdeen are paying, which is over double the national average, at £53.80.
- Students in London spend the most on a night out in the city, at an average cost of £27, with as many as 30% of them spending over £20 individually on each night out. Given this, 29% of London's students choose not to go out in the capital at all.
- At £18.60 and 12% above national average, students going out for a meal in Bristol spend the most, closely followed by Aberdeen. In the Northeast, students in Durham spend the least on a meal out in the city at £12.50, 22% below national average.
*Data excludes those who do not drink