The stats that show why the 90s really were better

Every generation looks back through rose tinted glasses at the days of its youth. It’s perhaps no surprise, then, to see that nostalgia for the 1990s is alive and well.

While the people who grew up with Britpop, Cool Britannia, Euro 96 et al might now be at the right age to get misty eyed about their youth, a series of stats could well back up the theory that their decade was just plain better.

Back in 1995, the average person earned £13,302 a year (a rise of 90% from ten years previously) and the average house price was £51,084.

A house, therefore, cost just under four times the average salary.

Fast forward ten years to 2005 and house prices had risen by 199% to £152,790 while wages were up 52% to £20,215. A house was 7.5 times the average salary.

Houses in 1995 were smaller, in relation to salary, than in 1975, 1985 and 2015 too.

Cinema tickets were less than half the price that they reached in 2015, while a pint of beer was comfortably under £2.

Ok, so 2015 has superfast broadband but most of us are probably paying too much for that anyway.

Sorry millennials, but the 1990s were better.

Alex Proud, writing in the Telegraph, even makes a case that the 90s were better than the 60s too.

Right, I’m off to dust off my copy of Oasis…