How does the UK's most recent recession, and subsequent recovery, compare to recessions in other countries and to previous recessions in the UK?

The table below shows every recession in G7-member countries since 1970. UK recessions are highlighted in white. Hover over a row to see further details. To 'rank' the recessions by a characteristic, such as inflation, click on the 'Inflation' header at the top of the table. To track a particular recession, first click to highlight the row and then sort.

The graphs below show growth in GDP, prices and productivity in the UK from 1860 onwards. Hover over a column to highlight a year and see further details. To discover how one particular year compares to others, on say GDP growth, click to highlight that year and then select the 'GDP' header on the left of the graph to sort the data. Lighter shades correspond to later years. The growth rates for 2009, which capture the most recent recession, are highlighted in white.

Notes: * The recovery in Italy from the 2008 recession is still ongoing. For this visualisation a recession is defined as two consecutive falls in quarterly GDP. A second recession may occur before the recovery from the first is complete. Two recessions in France and Japan (which both began in 2014) were excluded as productivity data for 2014 was not available. All data for the top panel come from OECD statistics. 'Depth': Based on quarterly estimates of the expenditure measure of Gross Domestic Product. 'Inflation': Percentage change on the same quarter of the previous year in the Consumer Prices Index - all items. The inflation value that appears when hovering is the average level of inflation. 'Productivity': Based on GDP per hour worked on an annual basis in USD, constant prices, 2005 PPPs. As the productivity series is only available at an annual frequency, the growth rate is necessarily zero for recessions that are fully reversed within one calendar year, or if productivity in the last year of the recovery is also the lowest level since the start of the recession. All data for the lower panel come from the Bank of England's 'Three Centuries of Macroeconomic Data'.