In 2024, over nine million people lived in Greater London, making it the most populated ceremonial county in England. The West Midlands Metropolitan County, which contains the large city of Birmingham, was the second-largest county at just over 3.03 million, closely followed by Greater Manchester at three million, and then West Yorkshire with a population of 2.4 million. Kent, Essex, and Hampshire were the three next-largest counties in terms of population, each with just over 1.9 million people. A patchwork of regions England is just one of the four countries that compose the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with England, Scotland and Wales making up Great Britain. England is therefore not to be confused with Great Britain or the United Kingdom as a whole. Within England, the next subdivisions are the nine regions of England, containing various smaller units such as unitary authorities, metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan districts. The counties in this statistic, however, are based on the ceremonial counties of England as defined by the Lieutenancies Act of 1997. Regions of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland Like England, the other countries of the United Kingdom have their own regional subdivisions, although with some different terminology. Scotland’s subdivisions are council areas, while Wales has unitary authorities, and Northern Ireland has local government districts. As of 2024, the most-populated Scottish council area was Glasgow City, with over 650,000 inhabitants. In Wales, Cardiff had the largest population among its unitary authorities, and in Northern Ireland, Belfast was the local government area with the most people living there.

In the years 1166 to 1168, a total of 6,446.15 British pounds was spent on the hiring of knights' services. The counties with the highest amount of money spent on knights' fees were Yorkshire (which is also the largest county in England), Gloucestershire and Devon. The county where the lowest amount of money was spent on hiring knights' services was Surrey, where just four pounds was spent in 1166 to 1168.

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).

The population of the United Kingdom in 2024 was estimated to be approximately 69.3 million, with over 9.6 million people living in South East England. London had the next highest population, at almost 9.1 million people, followed by the North West England at 7.7 million. With the UK's population generally concentrated in England, most English regions have larger populations than the constituent countries of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, which had populations of 5.5 million, 3.2 million, and 1.9 million respectively. English counties and cities The United Kingdom is a patchwork of various regional units, within England the largest of these are the regions shown here, which show how London, along with the rest of South East England had around 18 million people living there in this year. The next significant regional units in England are the 47 metropolitan and ceremonial counties. After London, the metropolitan counties of the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, and West Yorkshire were the biggest of these counties, due to covering the large urban areas of Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds respectively. Regional divisions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland The smaller countries that comprise the United Kingdom each have different local subdivisions. Within Scotland these are called council areas, whereas in Wales the main regional units are called unitary authorities. Scotland's largest Council Area by population is that of Glasgow City at over 650,000, while in Wales, it was the Cardiff Unitary Authority at around 384,000. Northern Ireland, on the other hand, has eleven local government districts, the largest of which is Belfast with a population of approxiamtely 352,000.

According to the 2021 Census, London was the most ethnically diverse region in England and Wales – 63.2% of residents identified with an ethnic minority group.

As of 2024, the population density in London was by far the highest number of people per square km in the UK, at *****. Of the other regions and countries which constitute the United Kingdom, North West England was the next most densely populated area at *** people per square kilometer. Scotland, by contrast, is the most sparsely populated country or region in the United Kingdom, with only ** people per square kilometer. Countries, regions, and cities In 2024, the population of the United Kingdom reached **** million. The majority of people in the UK live in England, which had a population of **** million that year, followed by Scotland at *** million, Wales at **** million and finally Northern Ireland at just over *** million. Within England, the South East was the region with the highest population at almost *** million, followed by London at just over *****million. In terms of cities, London is the largest urban agglomeration in the United Kingdom, followed by Manchester, and then Birmingham, although both these cities combined would still have a smaller population than the UK capital. London calling London's huge size in relation to other UK cities is also reflected by its economic performance. In 2023, London's GDP was over ****billion British pounds, around a quarter of UK's overall GDP. In terms of GDP per capita, Londoners had a GDP per head of ****** pounds, compared with an average of ****** for the country as a whole. Productivity, expressed as by output per hour worked, was also far higher in London than the rest of the country. In 2023, London was around *****percent more productive than the rest of the country, with South East England the only other region where productivity was higher than the national average.

Number of suicides, suicide rates and median registration delays, by local authority in England and Wales.

UK residents by broad country of birth and citizenship groups, broken down by UK country, local authority, unitary authority, metropolitan and London boroughs, and counties. Estimates from the Annual Population Survey.

The median age of the population in London was 35.7 years in 2024, the lowest median age among regions of the United Kingdom. By contrast, South West England had a median age of 43.7, the highest in the UK.

As of November 2022, Rutland Water ranked as the largest country park in England. Measuring over ***** hectares in size, Rutland Water shares part of its name from the county where it is located, Rutland, which has the distinction of being Britain's smallest county. Trailing Rutland Water as the second largest English country park was Nottinghamshire-based Clumber park, with a size of over ***** hectares.

The gross domestic product of London was approximately 569 billion British pounds in 2023, far bigger than any other major metropolitan area of the United Kingdom in that year. The metropolitan area with the second-largest GDP was Greater Manchester, at around 101.3 billion British pounds,

In the 2024/25 reporting year, Lincolnshire Police reported a homicide rate of 17.9 homicides per million people, the highest among the provided police force areas in England in that reporting year.

In 2023, the gross domestic product per capita in London was 63,618 British pounds, compared with 37,135 pounds per capita for the United Kingdom as a whole. Apart from London, the only other region of the UK that had a greater GDP per capita than the UK average was South East England, at 38,004 pounds per capita. By contrast, North East England had the lowest GDP per capita among UK regions, at 26,347 pounds. Regional imbalance in the UK economy? London's overall GDP in 2022 was over 508 billion British pounds, which accounted for almost a quarter of the overall GDP of the United Kingdom. South East England had the second-largest regional economy in the country, with a GDP of almost 341.7 billion British pounds. Furthermore, these two regions were the only ones that had higher levels of productivity (as measured by output per hour worked) than the UK average. While recent governments have recognized regional inequality as a major challenge facing the country, it may take several years for any initiatives to bear fruit. The creation of regional metro mayors across England is one of the earliest attempts at giving regions and cities in particular more power over spending in their regions than they currently have. UK economy growth slow in late 2024 After ending 2023 with two quarters of negative growth, the UK economy grew at the reasonable rate of 0.8 percent and 0.4 percent in the first and second quarters of the year. This was, however, followed by zero growth in the third quarter, and by just 0.1 percent in the last quarter of the year. Other economic indicators, such as the inflation rate, fell within the expected range in 2024, but have started to rise again, with a rate of three percent recorded in January 2025. While unemployment has witnessed a slight uptick since 2022, it is still at quite low levels compared with previous years.

House prices vary widely in the United Kingdom (UK), but housing in certain cities and counties is substantially pricier than in others. Surrey, for example, concentrated four of the most expensive towns to buy a home, including Virginia Water, Cobham, and Esher. With an average house price of over *********** British pounds as of June 2024, housing in these towns cost roughly **** times the national average. How did house prices change since the COVID-19 pandemic? Since the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, demand for housing has been especially high, causing house prices to soar. Among major UK cities, the house price increase was most prominent in Belfast, where it rose by *** percent in 2024. According to the UK House Price Index, the average annual house price increase on a national level was even higher. How long does it take to sell a house? With the demand for housing going strong and inventory running low, aspiring homeowners need to act faster than ever when making an offer on a home. The average number of days on market has continued shortening since the start of 2021 and was a little over a month as of October 2021. Surprisingly, selling a property took the longest in the UK’s most competitive market - London.

As of the first quarter of 2025, the claimant count rate of the West Midlands Metropolitan County was 7.7 percent, which was the highest among unitary authorities, metropolitan counties, and in London.

This statistic presents the number of domestic tourism trips taken to national parks in Great Britain between 2016 and 2019. South Downs National Park The South Downs are a range of chalk hills within the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire to Beachy Head in East Sussex.
Owing to their natural beauty, accessibility, and relative proximity to several populous area of Southern England the South Down National Park was the most popular national park in the Great Britain; receiving 2.31 million visitors in 2019. Lake District National Park The Lake District National Park, colloquially known as The Lakes, is a mountainous region within the county of Cumbria in the North West of England. As the largest national park within England, the Lake District exhibits diverse terrain and cultural heritage and contains a wide variety of flora and fauna. As a result of this depth of cultural and natural resources the Lake District is one of the most popular tourist destinations in England; consistently receiving over two million visitors annually.
As the greatest upland region in England, all of the land within England more than 914 m above sea level lies within the Lake district National Park, including the highest mountain in England; Scafell Pike. In addition to the superlative mountainous characteristics the Lake District contains both the deepest and largest natural bodies of water in England. These natural resources make the Lake District national park extremely popular amongst climbers and mountaineers; ramblers; photographers; and water sports enthusiasts and other outdoor enthusiasts.
Alongside these diverse natural resources there exists a wealth of cultural history including a deep literary history, with its associations with Beatrix Potter, John Ruskin, William Wordsworth and other ‘Lake Poets’. Snowdonia Snowdonia (Eryri) National Park, was established in 1951 as the first national park in Wales is the country’s most popular national park receiving over 1.1 million visitors in 2019.
The region is named, in English, in reference to Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa); the highest peak within the National Park which, at 1,085 meters above sea level, is the highest mountain within Wales, England and Northern Ireland.
As one of few regions of alpine topography in the United Kingdom (UK), Snowdonia is particularly popular amongst climbers and mountaineers. In addition to its mountainous terrain Snowdonia also contains over 200 miles of coastline, much of which exists on the Llyn Peninsular, a region designated as an ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’ by Natural Resources Wales. There is a strong cultural affinity amongst the local population; many of whom are among the nations few remaining first language welsh speakers. Within Snowdonia the Welsh language (Cymraeg) is the day to day language and is spoken and understood by the majority of the population.
With English sovereignty over Wales imposed within Henry VIII’s Act of Union in 1536, the use of the Welsh language was largely banned and laws were passed which removed its official status. Following the act it was not possible for a monoglot Welshman to hold an official office in Wales; a condition that remains to this day.
From the 1847 ‘Treachery of the Blue Books’, a government report that condemned “the evil of the Welsh language” as a “barrier to the moral progress and commercial prosperity of the people”, to the nineteenth century ‘Welsh Not’, which physically punished schoolchildren for speaking their native tongue, the Welsh language has been systematically and consistently oppressed throughout welsh history.
This perceived oppression led to the development of a number of significant public campaigns which successfully prevented the extinction of the Welsh language and today the language plays a major part in national and local government, education, tourism, administration and culture. The main cultural festivals are the National Eisteddfod and the Urdd Youth Eisteddfod which celebrate the wealth of Welsh talent in music, poetry, drama, prose, art and science. Throughout Snowdonia National Park there are many galleries, theatres, museums, concert halls and libraries to host and support the hundreds of Welsh language cultural activities that take place in the region each year

With approximately 122.1 crimes per 1,000 population, Cleveland, in North East England, had the highest crime rate of all the police force areas in England and Wales in 2024/25. High crime rates are evident in other areas of northern England, such as West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester at 114.5 and 108.2, respectively. In the UK capital, London, the crime rate was 105.5 per 1,000 people. The lowest crime rate in England was in the relatively rural areas of Wiltshire in South West England, as well as North Yorkshire. Overall crime in England and Wales The number of crimes in England and Wales reached approximately 6.74 million in 2022/23, falling slightly to 6.66 million in 2023/24, and 6.59 million in 2024/25. Overall crime has been rising steadily across England and Wales for almost a decade, even when adjusted for population rises. In 2022/23, for example, the crime rate in England and Wales was 93.6, the highest since 2006/07. When compared with the rest of the United Kingdom, England and Wales is something of an outlier, as crime rates for Scotland and Northern Ireland have not followed the same trajectory of rising crime. Additionally, there has been a sharp increase in violent crimes and sexual offences since the mid-2010s in England and Wales. While theft offences have generally been falling, the number of shoplifting offences reached a peak of 530,640 in 2024/25. Troubled justice system under pressure Alongside rising crime figures, many indicators also signal that the justice system is getting pushed to breaking point. The percentage of crimes that are solved in England and Wales was just 5.7 percent in 2023, with sexual offences having a clearance rate of just 3.6 percent. Crimes are also taking far longer than usual to pass through the justice system. In 2022, it took an average of 407 days for a crown court case to reach a conclusion from the time of the offence, compared with 233 days in 2018. This is most likely related to the large backlog of cases in crown courts, which reached over 67,750 in 2023. Furthermore, prisons in England and Wales are dangerously overcrowded, with the government even releasing some prisoners early to address the issue.

London had the highest crime rate among regions of the United Kingdom in 2024/25, at approximately ***** crimes per 1,000 population, followed by Yorkshire and the Humber, at ***** crimes per 1,000 people. On a more local level, the police force area with the highest crime rate in England and Wales was that of Cleveland, in North East England. Although London had the fifth-highest crime rate among police force areas, it was lower than the crime rates of the West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, and South Yorkshire police force areas as well. Is crime in the UK rising? Between the early 2000s and the mid-2010s, crime in the UK declined quite significantly. The crime rates of England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland all fell during this time period. From around 2013/14, however the crime rate in England and Wales began to rise again, approaching levels seen in the 2000s. In Scotland and Northern Ireland crime also stopped declining at the same rate, although there was no sudden increase as seen in England and Wales. Without adjusting for population-size, the overall number of crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales reached a peak of around 6.74 million offences in 2022/23, falling slightly in the two years since then. What kinds of crime are increasing? Although overall crime levels have increased, some types of crime have continued to decline. Overall theft offences for example, are far lower than in the 2000s. This is partly due to the decline in burglaries, and vehicle theft offences. Shoplifting offences, by contrast have spiked since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching a peak of over ******* offences in 2024/25. Additionally, the number of violence against the person offences surged from 2014/15 onwards, with the number of sexual offences also at far higher levels than in the recent past.

In 2016, it was estimated that Birmingham had the largest Muslim population of any local authority in England and Wales at approximately 280 thousand people. Newham and Tower Hamlets, both boroughs of London, had the second and third-largest Muslim populations at 135 and 128 thousand respectively.

In 2023, London had a gross domestic product of over 569 billion British pounds, by far the most of any region of the United Kingdom. The region of South East England which surrounds London had the second-highest GDP in this year, at over 360 billion pounds. North West England, which includes the major cities of Manchester and Liverpool, had the third-largest GDP among UK regions, at almost 250 billion pounds. Levelling Up the UK London’s economic dominance of the UK can clearly be seen when compared to the other regions of the country. In terms of GDP per capita, the gap between London and the rest of the country is striking, standing at over 63,600 pounds per person in the UK capital, compared with just over 37,100 pounds in the rest of the country. To address the economic imbalance, successive UK governments have tried to implement "levelling-up policies", which aim to boost investment and productivity in neglected areas of the country. The success of these programs going forward may depend on their scale, as it will likely take high levels of investment to reverse economic neglect regions have faced in the recent past. Overall UK GDP The gross domestic product for the whole of the United Kingdom amounted to 2.56 trillion British pounds in 2024. During this year, GDP grew by 0.9 percent, following a growth rate of 0.4 percent in 2023. Due to the overall population of the UK growing faster than the economy, however, GDP per capita in the UK fell in both 2023 and 2024. Nevertheless, the UK remains one of the world’s biggest economies, with just five countries (the United States, China, Japan, Germany, and India) having larger economies. It is it likely that several other countries will overtake the UK economy in the coming years, with Indonesia, Brazil, Russia, and Mexico all expected to have larger economies than Britain by 2050.