National and subnational mid-year population estimates for the UK and its constituent countries by administrative area, age and sex (including components of population change, median age and population density).

A comparative study of the causes of new episodes of homelessness among people aged 50 or more years was undertaken in Boston, Massachusetts (USA), Melbourne, Australia, and four English cities. The aims were to make a substantial contribution to the predominantly American debate on the causes of homelessness, and to make practice recommendations for the improvement of prevention.

The study had several objectives. It aimed to collect information about the antecedents, triggers and risk factors for becoming homeless in later life and about the national and local policy and service contexts. Furthermore, the researchers aimed to analyse and interpret the findings with reference to an integrated model of the causes of homelessness that represented structural and policy factors, including housing, health and social service organisation and delivery factors, and personal circumstances, events, problems and dysfunctions. The aim was to do this collaboratively, by drawing on the project partners' experience and knowledge. Finally, it was hoped to develop recommendations for housing, primary health care and social welfare organisations for the prevention of homelessness. This was to be done by identifying the common sequences and interactions of events that precede homelessness and their markers (or 'early warning' indicators) and by holding workshops in England with practitioners and their representative organisations on new ways of working.

By the study of contrasting welfare and philanthropic regimes in a relatively homogeneous category of homeless incidence (i.e. recent cases among late middle-aged and older people), it was hoped that valuable insights into the relative contributions of the policy, service and personal factors would be obtained. The study focused on older people who had recently become homeless, purposely to gather detailed and reliable information about the prior and contextual circumstances. To have included people who had been homeless for several years would have reduced the quality of the data because of 'recall' problems.

Users should note that data from the Australian sample for the study are not included in this dataset.

In 2024, the population of the United Kingdom reached 69.3 million, compared with 68.5 million in 2023. The UK population has more than doubled since 1871 when just under 31.5 million lived in the UK and has grown by around 10.4 million since the start of the twenty-first century. For most of the twentieth century, the UK population steadily increased, with two noticeable drops in population occurring during World War One (1914-1918) and in World War Two (1939-1945). Demographic trends in postwar Britain After World War Two, Britain and many other countries in the Western world experienced a 'baby boom,' with a postwar peak of 1.02 million live births in 1947. Although the number of births fell between 1948 and 1955, they increased again between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s, with more than one million people born in 1964. Since 1964, however, the UK birth rate has fallen from 18.8 births per 1,000 people to a low of just 10.2 in 2020. As a result, the UK population has gotten significantly older, with the country's median age increasing from 37.9 years in 2001 to 40.7 years in 2022. What are the most populated areas of the UK? The vast majority of people in the UK live in England, which had a population of 58.6 million people in 2024. By comparison, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland had populations of 5.5 million, 3.2 million, and 1.9 million, respectively. Within England, South East England had the largest population, at over 9.6 million, followed by the UK's vast capital city of London, at almost 9.1 million. London is far larger than any other UK city in terms of urban agglomeration, with just four other cities; Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, and Glasgow, boasting populations that exceed one million people.

There were ****** police officers in London in 2024, a decline when compared with the previous year. The majority of police officers in London work for the Metropolitan Police service, which is responsible for policing most of the UK capital, with the City of London Police only responsible for policing the historical center of the city, an area the size of around one square mile.

London was home to some *** million passenger cars in 2020. Between 1995 and 2020, the number of licensed cars in the capital city saw a net increase of ** percent, although figures have declined in the last two years recorded. Overall, there were some **** million cars in the United Kingdom in 2020. London has the longest metro network in Europe. However, despite efforts to promote public transportation as a way to reduce fossil fuel intensive car driving, the motor vehicle still proved popular.

Pollution fighting schemes

In recent years, the Greater London Authority has increased incentives to stifle car usage in the city center. It introduced the Congestion Charge Zone in 2003, the Low Emission Zone in 2008, and followed up with the Ultra Low Emission Zone in early 2019, which are all intended to reduce traffic pollution and improve air quality. On average, around *** million unique vehicles traversed the Congestion Charge Zone every month in 2018.

Car-sharing: a means to reduce car ownership

According to a 2018 survey, members of car-sharing clubs in London are more likely to own no cars of their own after joining. While more than half of those participating in car sharing associations were already car-less before becoming members, the share increased to ** percent after. Vehicle sales in the UK declined dramatically amid the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.