In 2023, almost 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 2.98 million inhabitants, followed by Greater Manchester and then West Yorkshire with populations of 2.95 million and 2.4 million, respectively. Kent, Essex, and Hampshire were the three next-largest counties in terms of population, each with around 1.89 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 2022, the most-populated Scottish council area was Glasgow City, with over 622,000 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.

This spatial dataset is an output of the Natural England County & City Natural Capital Atlas project (July 2020). It shows variation in ecosystem service flow for habitats across England, based on indicators identified by NE in the 2018 Natural Capital Indicators project. The dataset comprises a hexagonal grid which summarises indicator values across the country (each unit = 5km²).

Natural Capital is an important aspect of current environmental policy and management. This dataset, in combination with the other project outputs, will support understanding of Natural Capital in England and serve as a valuable engagement tool to communicate concepts of the Natural Capital approach to a wide variety of stakeholders.

For full methodology and user guide see documents ‘NCAtlas_Devon’ and ‘NC-Mapping-User-Guidance’ at http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/publication/6672365834731520.

For full metadata documentation see the data package download below.

Copyright statement: LCM2015 © NERC (CEH) 2011. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown Copyright 2007. © Defra. Contains Defra information © Defra - Project MB0102. © Environment Agency. © Forestry Commission. © Historic England [year]. © Joint Nature Conservation Committee. © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right [year]. Contains data supplied by © NERC - Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. © Natural England copyright. Natural England Licence No. 2011/052 British Geological Survey © NERC, all rights reserved, © NSRI Cranfield University. Contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right [year]. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right [year]. Contains Rural Payments Agency. © Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council. © Bath & North East Somerset Council. © Bedford Borough Council. © London Borough of Bexley. © Birmingham City Council. © Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council. © Blackpool Council. © Bolton Council. © BCP Council. © Bracknell Forest Council. © City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council. © Brighton & Hove City Council. © Bristol City Council. © London Borough of Bromley. © Buckinghamshire County Council. © Bury Council. © Calderdale Council. © Cambridgeshire County Council. © Central Bedfordshire Council. © Cheshire East Council. © Cheshire West and Chester Council. © Cornwall Council. © Cumbria County Council. © Derbyshire County Council. © Devon County Council. © Doncaster Council. © Dorset Council. © Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. © Durham County Council. © East Riding of Yorkshire Council. © East Sussex County Council. © Essex County Council. © Gateshead Council. © Gloucestershire County Council. © Hampshire County Council. © Herefordshire Council. © Hertfordshire County Council. © Hull City Council. © Isle of Anglesey County Council. © Isle of Wight Council. © Kent County Council. © Kirklees Council. © Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council. © Lake District National Park. © Lancashire County Council. © Leicester City Council. © Leicestershire County Council. © Lincolnshire County Council. © Manchester City Council. © Medway Council. © Norfolk County Council. © North Lincolnshire Council. © North Somerset Council. © North Yorkshire County Council. © Northamptonshire County Council. © Northumberland County Council. © Nottingham City Council. © Nottinghamshire County Council. © Oldham Council. © Oxfordshire County Council. © Peterborough City Council. © Plymouth City Council. © Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. © Portsmouth City Council. © Reading Borough Council. © Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council. © Rochdale Borough Council. © Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. © Rutland County Council. © Salford City Council. © Sefton Council. © Sheffield City Council. © Shropshire Council. © Slough Borough Council. © Somerset County Council. © South Gloucestershire Council. © Southampton City Council. © St Helens Council. © Staffordshire County Council. © Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council. © Stockton Council. © Suffolk County Council. © Surrey County Council. © Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council. © Thurrock Council. © Torbay Council. © Trafford Council. © Wakefield Council. © Walsall Council. © Warrington Borough Council. © Warwickshire County Council. © West Berkshire Council. © West Sussex County Council. © Wigan Council. © Wiltshire Council. © Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council. © Wirral Council. © Wokingham Borough Council. © Worcestershire County Council. © City of York Council.

The population of the United Kingdom in 2023 was estimated to be approximately 68.3 million in 2023, with almost 9.48 million people living in South East England. London had the next highest population, at over 8.9 million people, followed by the North West England at 7.6 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, 3.16 million, and 1.92 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 622,000, while in Wales, it was the Cardiff Unitary Authority at around 372,000. Northern Ireland, on the other hand, has eleven local government districts, the largest of which is Belfast with a population of around 348,000.

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.

London had the highest unemployment rate among regions of the United Kingdom in the fourth quarter of 2024 at 6.1 percent, while for the UK as a whole, the unemployment rate was 4.4 percent. Four other regions also had an unemployment rate higher than the national average, while Northern Ireland had the lowest unemployment rate in this time period, at two percent. Labor market recovery after COVID-19 After reaching historically low levels of unemployment in 2019, there was a noticeable spike in the UK unemployment rate in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. After peaking at 5.1 percent in late 2020, the unemployment rate declined throughout 2021 and 2022. High levels of job vacancies, resignations, and staff shortages in 2022, were all indicative of a very tight labor market that year, but all these measures have started to point in the direction of a slightly looser labor market. UK's regional economic divide While the North of England has some of the country’s largest cities, the sheer size and economic power of London is much larger than the UK's other urban agglomerations. Partly, due to the size of London, the United Kingdom is one of Europe’s most centralized counties, and there is a clear divide between the economic prospects of north and south England. In 2022, for example, the gross domestic product per head in London was 57,338 British pounds, far higher than the UK average of 33,593 pounds, and significantly larger than North East England, the region with the lowest GDP per head at 24,172 pounds.

In 2022, London had a gross domestic product of over 508 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 341 billion pounds. North West England, which includes the major cities of Manchester and Liverpool, had the third-largest GDP among UK regions, at approximately 223.5 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 57,338 pounds per person in the UK capital, compared with just over 33,593 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.

Survey name: Mogerhanger A1(M) Improvements (Map 4) Post 1988 Agricultural Land Classification (ALC) site survey data – scanned original paper maps and survey reports for individual sites surveyed in detail between 1989 and 1999 by the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food. Where Grade 3 is mapped this includes the subdivision of Grade 3 into subgrades 3a and 3b. Surveys use the current grading methodology as described in "Agricultural Land Classification of England and Wales," a link for which is provided with the data. Individual sites have been mapped at varying scales and level of detail from 1:5,000 to 1:50,000 (typically 1:10,000). Unedited sample point soils data and soil pit descriptions are also available for some surveys. Attribution statement: © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right [year]. Attribution statement: Attribution statement: © Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right [year].