Land area (sq. km) in United Kingdom was reported at 241930 sq. Km in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. United Kingdom - Land area (sq. km) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on November of 2025.

United Kingdom UK: Urban Land Area data was reported at 58,698.750 sq km in 2010. This stayed constant from the previous number of 58,698.750 sq km for 2000. United Kingdom UK: Urban Land Area data is updated yearly, averaging 58,698.750 sq km from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2010, with 3 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 58,698.750 sq km in 2010 and a record low of 58,698.750 sq km in 2010. United Kingdom UK: Urban Land Area data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Urban land area in square kilometers, based on a combination of population counts (persons), settlement points, and the presence of Nighttime Lights. Areas are defined as urban where contiguous lighted cells from the Nighttime Lights or approximated urban extents based on buffered settlement points for which the total population is greater than 5,000 persons.; ; Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)/Columbia University. 2013. Urban-Rural Population and Land Area Estimates Version 2. Palisades, NY: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/set/lecz-urban-rural-population-land-area-estimates-v2.; Sum;

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.

Actual value and historical data chart for United Kingdom Surface Area Sq Km

United Kingdom UK: Rural Land Area data was reported at 183,648.922 sq km in 2010. This stayed constant from the previous number of 183,648.922 sq km for 2000. United Kingdom UK: Rural Land Area data is updated yearly, averaging 183,648.922 sq km from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2010, with 3 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 183,648.922 sq km in 2010 and a record low of 183,648.922 sq km in 2010. United Kingdom UK: Rural Land Area data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Rural land area in square kilometers, derived from urban extent grids which distinguish urban and rural areas based on a combination of population counts (persons), settlement points, and the presence of Nighttime Lights. Areas are defined as urban where contiguous lighted cells from the Nighttime Lights or approximated urban extents based on buffered settlement points for which the total population is greater than 5,000 persons.; ; Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)/Columbia University. 2013. Urban-Rural Population and Land Area Estimates Version 2. Palisades, NY: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/set/lecz-urban-rural-population-land-area-estimates-v2.; Sum;

United Kingdom UK: Population Density: People per Square Km data was reported at 272.898 Person/sq km in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 271.134 Person/sq km for 2016. United Kingdom UK: Population Density: People per Square Km data is updated yearly, averaging 235.922 Person/sq km from Dec 1961 (Median) to 2017, with 57 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 272.898 Person/sq km in 2017 and a record low of 218.245 Person/sq km in 1961. United Kingdom UK: Population Density: People per Square Km data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population density is midyear population divided by land area in square kilometers. Population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship--except for refugees not permanently settled in the country of asylum, who are generally considered part of the population of their country of origin. Land area is a country's total area, excluding area under inland water bodies, national claims to continental shelf, and exclusive economic zones. In most cases the definition of inland water bodies includes major rivers and lakes.; ; Food and Agriculture Organization and World Bank population estimates.; Weighted average;

The United Kingdom: Land area in sq. km: The latest value from 2023 is 241930 sq. km, unchanged from 241930 sq. km in 2022. In comparison, the world average is 656095 sq. km, based on data from 196 countries. Historically, the average for the United Kingdom from 1961 to 2023 is 241930 sq. km. The minimum value, 241930 sq. km, was reached in 1961 while the maximum of 241930 sq. km was recorded in 1961.

This zip file contains the Standard Area Measurements (SAM) for the administrative areas in the United Kingdom as at 31 December 2022. This includes the wards, local authority districts, counties and regions in England and the countries. All measurements provided are ‘flat’ as they do not take into account variations in relief e.g. mountains and valleys. Measurements are given in hectares (10,000 square metres) to 2 decimal places. Four types of measurements are included: total extent (AREAEHECT), area to mean high water (coastline) (AREACHECT), area of inland water (AREAIHECT) and area to mean high water excluding area of inland water (land area) (AREALHECT). The Eurostat-recommended approach is to use the ‘land area’ measurement to compile population density figures.Change in the ward name W05001063 Pontlliew and Tircoed should have been called Pontlliw and Tircoed and we have made that change.This is a version 2 of the data as there was an error in the calculation of the Local Authorities, Counties, Regions, and CountriesClick the Download button to download the files

This zip file contains the Standard Area Measurements (SAM) for the 2021 Statistical Areas in England and Wales as at Census Day (21 March 2021). This includes the Output Areas (OA), Lower layer Super Output Areas (LSOA), Middle layer Super Output Areas (MSOA), the Lower-Tier Local Authorities (LTLA) including the Unitary Authorities (E06 and W06), Non-metropolitan Districts (E07), Metropolitan Districts (E08) and London Boroughs (E09), the Upper-Tier Local Authorities (UTLA) including the Unitary Authorities (E06 and W06), Counties (E10), Metropolitan Districts (E08) and London Boroughs (E09), the Regions including the country of Wales, Countries and National. All measurements provided are ‘flat’ as they do not take into account variations in relief e.g. mountains and valleys. Measurements are given in hectares (10,000 square metres) to 2 decimal places and square kilometres to 4 decimal places. Four types of measurements are included: total extent (AREAEHECT), area to mean high water (coastline) (AREACHECT), area of inland water (AREAIHECT) and area to mean high water excluding area of inland water (land area) (AREALHECT). The Eurostat-recommended approach is to use the ‘land area’ measurement to compile population density figures.This V2 is because the user guide name was too long.PLEASE NOTE:There is an extremely small OA with the code E00187556 and measures 400 centimetres squared. This is because all the population and household points are centred around a very small space and to make sure it was in threshold it was manually changed to make it within threshold.Click the Download button to download the files

United Kingdom UK: Land Area data was reported at 241,930.000 sq km in 2017. This stayed constant from the previous number of 241,930.000 sq km for 2016. United Kingdom UK: Land Area data is updated yearly, averaging 241,930.000 sq km from Dec 1961 (Median) to 2017, with 57 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 241,930.000 sq km in 2017 and a record low of 241,930.000 sq km in 2017. United Kingdom UK: Land Area data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Land area is a country's total area, excluding area under inland water bodies, national claims to continental shelf, and exclusive economic zones. In most cases the definition of inland water bodies includes major rivers and lakes.; ; Food and Agriculture Organization, electronic files and web site.; Sum;

Actual value and historical data chart for United Kingdom Population Density People Per Sq Km

United Kingdom UK: Surface Area data was reported at 243,610.000 sq km in 2017. This stayed constant from the previous number of 243,610.000 sq km for 2016. United Kingdom UK: Surface Area data is updated yearly, averaging 243,610.000 sq km from Dec 1961 (Median) to 2017, with 57 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 243,610.000 sq km in 2017 and a record low of 243,610.000 sq km in 2017. United Kingdom UK: Surface Area data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Surface area is a country's total area, including areas under inland bodies of water and some coastal waterways.; ; Food and Agriculture Organization, electronic files and web site.; Sum;

The United Kingdom: Forest area, sq. km: The latest value from 2023 is 32154.2 sq. km, an increase from 32069 sq. km in 2022. In comparison, the world average is 207390.9 sq. km, based on data from 194 countries. Historically, the average for the United Kingdom from 1990 to 2023 is 30210.4 sq. km. The minimum value, 27780 sq. km, was reached in 1990 while the maximum of 32154.2 sq. km was recorded in 2023.

This is a web map service (WMS) of Digital Surface Model (DSM) data in South West England at a 1m resolution. The DSM covers an area of 9424 km2 that includes all the land west of Exmouth (i.e. west of circa 3 degrees 21 minutes West). The DSM includes the height of features on the bare earth such as buildings or vegetation (if present). The dataset is a part of outcomes from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology South West (SW) Project.

This is a web map service (WMS) of Digital Terrain Model (DTM) data in South West England at a 1m resolution. The DTM covers an area of 9424 km2 that includes all the land west of Exmouth (i.e. west of circa 3 degrees 21 minutes West). The DTM represents the topographic model (height) of the bare earth. The dataset is a part of outcomes from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology South West (SW) Project.

Actual value and historical data chart for United Kingdom Agricultural Land Sq Km

[THIS DATASET HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN]. The dataset includes five files of UK physical river characteristics including four files of gridded data at 1km × 1km resolution and one comma separated table. The data includes: - Outflow drainage directions (D8) - Catchment areas (km2) - Widths of bankfull rivers (m) - Depths of bankfull rivers (m) - NRFA gauging station locations (easting (m), northing (m)) The comma separated NRFA (National River Flow Archive) gauging station locations table provides the best locations of 1499 river flow gauging stations on the 1km grids, together with the approximate error in the 1km × 1km gridded delineation of the upstream catchment area. All datasets are provided on the British National Grid. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/6da95899-f3b8-4089-b621-560818aa78ba

What does the data show?

Railway lines per area (m/km2) from the UK Climate Resilience Programme UK-SSPs project. The data is available for each Office for National Statistics Local Authority District (ONS LAD) shape simplified to a 10m resolution.

The data is available for the end of each decade. This dataset contains SSP1, SSP2, SSP3, SSP4 and SSP5. For more information see the table below.

Indicator

Rail Infrastructure

Metric

Railway lines per area

Unit

m/km2

Spatial Resolution

LAD

Temporal Resolution

Decadal

Sectoral Categories

N/A

Baseline Data Source

WFP 2014

Projection Trend Source

Stakeholder process

What are the naming conventions and how do I explore the data?

This data contains a field for the year at the end of each decade. A separate field for 'Scenario' allows the data to be filtered, e.g. by scenario 'SSP3'.

To understand how to explore the data, see this page: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/457e7a2bc73e40b089fac0e47c63a578

Please note, if viewing in ArcGIS Map Viewer, the map will default to 2020 values.

What are Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs)?

The global SSPs, used in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments, are five different storylines of future socioeconomic circumstances, explaining how the global economy and society might evolve over the next 80 years. Crucially, the global SSPs are independent of climate change and climate change policy, i.e. they do not consider the potential impact climate change has on societal and economic choices.

Instead, they are designed to be coupled with a set of future climate scenarios, the Representative Concentration Pathways or ‘RCPs’. When combined together within climate research (in any number of ways), the SSPs and RCPs can tell us how feasible it would be to achieve different levels of climate change mitigation, and what challenges to climate change mitigation and adaptation might exist.

Until recently, UK-specific versions of the global SSPs were not available to combine with the RCP-based climate projections. The aim of the UK-SSPs project was to fill this gap by developing a set of socioeconomic scenarios for the UK that is consistent with the global SSPs used by the IPCC community, and which will provide the basis for further UK research on climate risk and resilience.

Useful links:

Further information on the UK SSPs can be found on the UK SSP project site and in this storymap. Further information on RCP scenarios, SSPs and understanding climate data within the Met Office Climate Data Portal

This is a high resolution spatial dataset of Digital Terrain Model (DTM) data in South West England. The DTM along with a Digital Surface Model (DSM) cover an area of 9424 km2 that includes all the land west of Exmouth (i.e. west of circa 3 degrees 21 minutes West). The DTM represents the topographic model (height) of the bare earth. The dataset is a part of outcomes from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology South West (SW) Project. There is also a Digital Surface Model (DSM) dataset covering the same areas available from the SW project. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/e2a742df-3772-481a-97d6-0de5133f4812

United Kingdom UK: Urban Land Area Where Elevation is Below 5 Meters data was reported at 2,897.068 sq km in 2010. This stayed constant from the previous number of 2,897.068 sq km for 2000. United Kingdom UK: Urban Land Area Where Elevation is Below 5 Meters data is updated yearly, averaging 2,897.068 sq km from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2010, with 3 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 2,897.068 sq km in 2010 and a record low of 2,897.068 sq km in 2010. United Kingdom UK: Urban Land Area Where Elevation is Below 5 Meters data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Urban land area below 5m is the total urban land area in square kilometers where the elevation is 5 meters or less.; ; Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)/Columbia University. 2013. Urban-Rural Population and Land Area Estimates Version 2. Palisades, NY: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/set/lecz-urban-rural-population-land-area-estimates-v2.; Sum;