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.

Rayleigh And Wickford, Essex demographics statistics broken down by ethnicity, religion, age, birthplace and much more. View full insights for the local and surrounding households.

This dataset as reported to the Rural Payments Agency contains information on cattle that were alive on 1 December 2006 but have consequently died all cattle registered to holdings on the Isle of Wight, All premises types except slaughterhouses e.g. farms, markets animals with anomalous movement histories due to missing movement reports. Attribution statement: © Rural Payments Agency

The aim of the study was to provide an estimation of population sizes at fixed times during the period when parish registration is the main source of demographic information.

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.

Creole languages are formed in conditions where speakers from distinct languages are brought together without a shared first language, typically under the domination of speakers from one of the languages and particularly in the context of the transatlantic slave trade and European colonialism. One such creole in Suriname, Sranan, developed during around the mid-seventeenth century, primarily out of contact between varieties of English from England, spoken by the dominant group, and multiple West African languages. The vast majority of the basic words in Sranan come from the language of the dominant group, English. Here, we compare linguistic features of modern-day Sranan with those of English as spoken in 313 localities across England. By way of testing proposed hypotheses for the origin of English words in Sranan, we find that 80% of the studied features of Sranan can be explained by similarity to regional dialect features at two distinct input locations within England, a cluster of locations near the port of Bristol and another cluster near Essex in Eastern England. Our new hypothesis is supported by the geographical distribution of specific regional dialect features, such as post-vocalic rhoticity and word-initial ‘h’, and by phylogenetic analysis of these features, which shows evidence favouring input from at least two English dialects in the formation of Sranan. In addition to explicating the dialect features most prominent in the linguistic evolution of Sranan, our historical analyses also provide supporting evidence for two distinct hypotheses about the likely geographical origins of the English speakers whose language was an input to Sranan. The emergence as a likely input to Sranan of the speech forms of a cluster near Bristol is consistent with historical records, indicating that most of the indentured servants going to the Americas between 1654 and 1666 were from Bristol and nearby counties; and that of the cluster near Essex is consistent with documents showing that many of the governors and important planters came from the southeast of England (including London) (Smith 1987 The Genesis of the Creole Languages of Surinam; Smith 2009 In The handbook of pidgin and creole studies, pp. 98–129).This article is part of the theme issue ‘Bridging cultural gaps: interdisciplinary studies in human cultural evolution’.

This computerised transcription of the census enumerators' books for the 1881 Census for England, Scotland and Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man is a by-product of a project to create a microfiche index of the population of Great Britain for genealogists. Covering the entire enumerated population of England, Scotland and Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man in 1881, it is the largest collection of historical source material to be made available in computerised form. The data consists of the name, address, relationship to the head of household, marital status, age, occupation and birthplace of some 26 million individuals, together with information about disabilities.
In 1999 the Genealogical Society of Utah published a version of this computerised transcription as a CD-ROM product suitable for genealogical research (Genealogical Society of Utah (1999) 1881 British census and national index. [25 CDs]. Salt Lake City, Utah: GSU). This study is an enriched version of these data.This study (SN:4177) comprises the returns for England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man; those for Scotland are available as SN:4178 1881 Census for Scotland.

This computerised transcription of the census enumerators' books for the 1881 Census for England, Scotland and Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man is a by-product of a project to create a microfiche index of the population of Great Britain for genealogists. Covering the entire enumerated population of England, Scotland and Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man in 1881, it is the largest collection of historical source material to be made available in computerised form. The data consists of the name, address, relationship to the head of household, marital status, age, occupation and birthplace of some 26 million individuals, together with information about disabilities.
In 1999 the Genealogical Society of Utah published a version of this computerised transcription as a CD-ROM product suitable for genealogical research (Genealogical Society of Utah (1999) 1881 British census and national index. [25 CDs]. Salt Lake City, Utah: GSU). This study is an enriched version of these data.The sample is a 5 per cent random sample of the parishes of Great Britain. The sample was chosen in the simplest manner possible. A list of all the parishes in England, Wales, Scotland and the Islands in the British Seas was created; using a random number generator in Microsoft Excel, a random number between zero and one was allocated to each parish. All those less than or equal to 0.05 were selected for the sample. The records relating to the individuals in each of these parishes were then extracted from the data and combined in a database.

Tables B1 and B3 in Appendix B of the documentation list the 716 parishes in the sample.

The aim of the Centre for Population Change (CPC) General Household Survey (GHS) Database project was twofold. The first objective was to create a new data resource, assembling in a single data file, in harmonised form, a time series of repeated cross-sectional GHS survey data on demographic histories relating to fertility, marriage and cohabitation. The second objective was to use this new data resource to analyse the changing dynamics of childbearing and partnership over recent decades, and especially to examine the determinants of the changing timetable of fertility and partnership. The data are a subset, in harmonised form, of all GHS rounds 1979-2009, with those from 1998-2009 being Special Licence editions plus the previous 1972-2004 Time Series GHS Dataset. From 2008, the GHS was known as the General Lifestyle Survey until it closed in 2012. See the UK Data Service General Lifestyle Survey series webpage (http://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/series/?sn=200019) for the original catalogue records. Further information about construction of the database can be found in the documentation. Information about the overall project can be found on the ESRC Centre for Population Change: Understanding Population Change in the 21st Century award page (http://www.researchcatalogue.esrc.ac.uk/grants/RES-625-28-0001/read). The Secure Access version replaces the previous Special Licence version that was held under SN 7666, which is no longer available. Prospective users of the Secure Access data will need to fulfil additional requirements, including completion of face-to-face training and agreement to Secure Access' User Agreement and Breaches Penalties Policy, in order to obtain permission to use that version (see 'Access' section below). Full citation: The Principal Investigators' preferred full citation for the database is as follows: Beaujouan, E., Ni Bhrolcháin, M., Berrington, A., Falkingham, J. Centre for Population Change General Household Survey Database, 1979-2009: Secure Access [computer file]. Office for National Statistics. Social Survey Division, [original data producer(s)]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive [distributor], March 2015. SN: 8099, http://dx.doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-8099-1

Chigwell Village, Essex demographics statistics broken down by ethnicity, religion, age, birthplace and much more. View full insights for the local and surrounding households.

The dataset details population bioturbation potential (BPp) across 6 intertidal sites in the winter and summer of 2013. The data provide an index of bioturbation potential of invertebrate species populations present within the top 10cm of sediment. Three sites were located in Essex, South East England and the other 3 in Morecambe Bay, North West England. Each site consisted of a saltmarsh habitat and adjacent mudflat habitat. 22 sampling quadrats were placed in each habitat covering 4 spatial scales. 3 replicate cores of sediment were collected at each quadrat. They were sieved on a 0.5mm mesh and the macrofauna was removed, identified to species (or appropriate taxon) and individuals were identified to species (or most appropriate taxon), counted and weighed. The resulting abundance and biomass data were then used to calculate BPp of each individual species present within a sample. BPp data for mudflat habitats across Essex and Morecambe are complete, however, saltmarsh data is only available for one full Essex site (Tillingham Marsh), in one season (winter) and across all sites, at the 1m scale. This data was collected as part of Coastal Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Sustainability (CBESS): NE/J015644/1. The project was funded with support from the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Sustainability (BESS) programme. BESS is a six-year programme (2011-2017) funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) as part of the UK's Living with Environmental Change (LWEC) programme. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/6d06122c-c856-4127-b7a5-34059d0e48e7

The 1971 Census Microdata Household File for Great Britain: 0.95% Sample dataset was created from existing digital records from the 1971 Census under a project known as Enhancing and Enriching Historic Census Microdata Samples (EEHCM), which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council with input from the Office for National Statistics and National Records of Scotland. The project ran from 2012-2014 and was led from the UK Data Archive, University of Essex, in collaboration with the Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research (CMIST) at the University of Manchester and the Census Offices. In addition to the 1971 data, the team worked on files from the 1961 Census and 1981 Census.

The original 1971 records preceded current data archival standards and were created before microdata sets for secondary use were anticipated. A process of data recovery and quality checking was necessary to maximise their utility for current researchers, though some imperfections remain (see the User Guide for details). Three other 1971 Census datasets have been created:

• SN 8268 - 1971 Census Microdata Individual File for Great Britain: 5% Sample, which contains information on individuals in larger local authorities, and is available to registered UK Data Service users based in the United Kingdom (see Access section for non-UK access restrictions);
• SN 8270 - 1971 Census Microdata Teaching Dataset for Great Britain: 1% Sample: Open Access, which can be used as a taster file and is freely available for anyone to download under an Open Government Licence; and
• SN 8271 - 1971 Census Microdata for Great Britain: 9% Sample: Secure Access, which comprises a larger population sample and so contains sufficient information to constitute personal data, meaning that it is only available to Accredited Researchers, under restrictive Secure Access conditions.

Understanding Society, (the UK Household Longitudinal Study), which began in 2009, is conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex and the survey research organisations Verian Group (formerly Kantar Public) and NatCen. It builds on and incorporates, the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), which began in 1991.

The Understanding Society Innovation Panel is designed for experimental and methodological research relevant to longitudinal surveys. As far as practical its design, content, and data collection procedures are similar to the main stage Understanding Society survey. It is a multi-topic household survey representative of the population of Great Britain. Data collection takes place annually using computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI), web surveys and telephone interviewing (CATI) to a small extent.

For details of the main Understanding Society study, please see study number 6614.

The Understanding Society: Innovation Panel: Special Licence Access, Census 2011 Output Area Classification dataset contains Output Areas (OAC11) geographic variables for each wave of Understanding Society: Innovation Panel to date, and a household identification serial number for file matching to the main Understanding Society: Innovation Panel data. It should be noted that these are the classifications and not the codes themselves. These data have more restrictive access conditions than those available under the standard End User Licence (see 'Access data' tab for more information).

Latest edition information

For the ninth edition (September 2025), data for Wave 17 was deposited and the documentation updated accordingly.

The aim of the Centre for Population Change (CPC) General Household Survey (GHS) Database project was twofold. The first objective was to create a new data resource, assembling in a single data file, in harmonised form, a time series of repeated cross-sectional GHS survey data on demographic histories relating to fertility, marriage and cohabitation. The second objective was to use this new data resource to analyse the changing dynamics of childbearing and partnership over recent decades, and especially to examine the determinants of the changing timetable of fertility and partnership.

The data are a subset, in harmonised form, of all GHS rounds 1979-2009, with those from 1998-2009 being Special Licence editions plus the previous 1972-2004 Time Series GHS Dataset. From 2008, the GHS was known as the General Lifestyle Survey until it closed in 2012. See the UK Data Service General Lifestyle Survey series webpage for the original catalogue records.

Further information about construction of the database can be found in the documentation. Information about the overall project can be found on the ESRC Centre for Population Change: Understanding Population Change in the 21st Century award page.

The Secure Access version replaces the previous Special Licence version that was held under SN 7666, which is no longer available. Prospective users of the Secure Access data will need to fulfil additional requirements, including completion of face-to-face training and agreement to Secure Access' User Agreement and Breaches Penalties Policy, in order to obtain permission to use that version (see 'Access' section below).

Full citation:
The Principal Investigators' preferred full citation for the database is as follows:

Beaujouan, E., Ni Bhrolcháin, M., Berrington, A., Falkingham, J. Centre for Population Change General Household Survey Database, 1979-2009: Secure Access [computer file]. Office for National Statistics. Social Survey Division, [original data producer(s)]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive [distributor], March 2015. SN: 8099, http://dx.doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-8099-1

Understanding Society (the UK Household Longitudinal Study), which began in 2009, is conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex, and the survey research organisations Verian Group (formerly Kantar Public) and NatCen. It builds on and incorporates, the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), which began in 1991.

This dataset contains Wellbeing Acorn geodemographic segmentation codes (group and type) for each household in every wave of Understanding Society, together with a household identification number (hidp) allowing it to be linked to the main Understanding Society data files. The dataset is produced by matching the Wellbeing Acorn segmentation against every Understanding Society household at the postcode level.

The Wellbeing Acorn segmentation system itself is developed and maintained by CACI Ltd and is designed by analysing demographic data, social factors, health and wellbeing characteristics in order to provide an understanding of the population’s wellbeing across the country. Group is the higher layer containing 5 segments providing a snapshot of the population from the least healthy to the healthiest. The more granular level is Type, containing 25 segments, to provide more detailed insights about the population to better understand their demographic, lifestyle and health characteristics. For details on the Acorn segmentation structure and how is it is produced please refer to the documentation and the Caci website.

These data have more restrictive access conditions than those available under the standard End User Licence (see 'Access data' tab for more information).

This is a quantitative data collection. This study aimed to collect comprehensive information on all forms of resources (including income and assets) and indicative information on deprivation and style of living in order to define and measure poverty among a representative sample of the population of the United Kingdom.

This major study was the result of fifteen years research. In 1964 the Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust agreed to finance pilot studies on fatherless families, large families and unemployed and disabled people which were then to be followed by a national survey of poverty. In 1967-68, following pilot work, interviews were completed with 2,052 households (6,045 people), in 630 parliamentary constituencies throughout the United Kingdom. Another 1,514 households (3,539 people), were later interviewed in a poor area of Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales to secure information about the populations of the poorest areas.

There were mixed reactions to the book’s publication in 1979. The concept of relative deprivation provoked much discussion but the issue of multiple deprivation experienced by individuals and families was largely ignored. Comparatively little attention was paid to certain forms of deprivation - such as deprivation at work and environmental or locational deprivation - although the report gave data about multiple deprivation drawn from 60 indicators.

Nearly 50 years later this study was reanalysed in a project funded by Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The ‘Advancing Paradata’ project looked at shifts and continuities in the social process of gathering household survey data about poverty. In part it does this through analysis of survey paradata from the 1968 Poverty in the UK survey. Paradata captures the gamut of by-products of the collection of survey data and is of interest in understanding and improving survey quality and costs. The main focus has been on automatically captured macro items, but this is now expanding to include interviewer-generated observations. For the ‘Advancing Paradata’ project, information available only on paper questionnaires at the UK Data Archive was converted into digitised form and related metadata was created. A sample of 100 survey booklets has been selected for this collection. These booklets were chosen because they have significant quantities of marginalia written on the booklets. These booklets are available via the UK Data Service QualiBank, an online tool for browsing, searching and citing the content of selected qualitative data collections held at the UK Data Service. Names of survey respondents have been removed to protect confidentiality.