This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates for the number of usual residents in Northern Ireland. The dataset also shows the population density, as well as the size of the geographical area. The estimates and area boundaries are as at census day, 21 March 2021.

The census collected information on the usually resident population of Northern Ireland on census day (21 March 2021). Initial contact letters or questionnaire packs were delivered to every household and communal establishment, and residents were asked to complete online or return the questionnaire with information as correct on census day. Special arrangements were made to enumerate special groups such as students, members of the Travellers Community, HM Forces personnel etc. The Census Coverage Survey (an independent doorstep survey) followed between 12 May and 29 June 2021 and was used to adjust the census counts for under-enumeration.

To find out how Data Zones and Super Data Zones have been developed, and how other Northern Ireland geographies can be approximated, please read the notes here

The quality assurance report can be found here

In 2024, Belfast was the local district which had the highest number of inhabitants in Northern Ireland, with an estimated population of 352,390, followed by Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon which had approximately 222,511 people living there in this year.

The 2021 Northern Ireland Census marked the first time since records began where the Catholic share of the population was larger than the combined Protestant share. In 2021, over 42 percent of the population classified themselves as Catholic or from a Catholic background, in comparison with 37 percent classified as Protestant or from a Protestant background. Additionally, the share of the population with no religion (or those who did not answer) was 19 percent; larger than any individual Protestant denomination. This marks a significant shift in demographic and societal trends over the past century, as Protestants outnumbered Catholics by roughly 2:1 when Northern Ireland was established in the 1920s. Given the Catholic community's historic tendency to be in favor of a united Ireland, many look to the changing religious composition of the population when assessing the potential for Irish reunification. Religion's historical influence A major development in the history of British rule in ireland was the Plantation of Ulster in the 1600s, where much of the land in the north (historically the most rebellious region) was seized from Irish Catholics and given to Protestant settlers from Britain (predominantly Scots). This helped establish Protestant dominance in the north, created a large section of the population loyal to the British crown, and saw a distinct Ulster-Scots identity develop over time. In the 1920s, the republican movement won independence for 26 of Ireland's 32 counties, however, the six counties in Ulster with the largest Protestant populations remained part of the UK, as Northern Ireland. Following partition, structural inequalities between Northern Ireland's Protestant and Catholic communities meant that the Protestant population was generally wealthier, better educated, more politically empowered, and had better access to housing, among other advantages. In the 1960s, a civil rights movement then emerged for equal rights and status for both sides of the population, but this quickly turned violent and escalated into a the three-decade long conflict now known as the Troubles.

The Troubles was largely fought between nationalist/republican paramilitaries (mostly Catholic), unionist/loyalist paramilitaries (mostly Protestant), and British security forces (including the police). This is often described as a religious conflict, however it is more accurately described as an ethnic and political conflict, where the Catholic community generally favored Northern Ireland's reunification with the rest of the island, while the Protestant community wished to remain in the UK. Paramilitaries had a large amount of support from their respective communities in the early years of the Troubles, but this waned as the conflict progressed into the 1980s and 1990s. Demographic and societal trends influenced the religious composition of Northern Ireland's population in these decades, as the Catholic community had higher fertility rates than Protestant communities, while the growing secularism has coincided with a decline in those identifying as Protestant - the dip in those identifying as Catholic in the 1970s and 1980s was due to a protest and boycott of the Census. The Troubles came to an end in 1998, and divisions between both sides of the community have drastically fallen, although they have not disappeared completely.

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).

This dataset contains gridded human population with a spatial resolution of 1 km x 1 km for the UK based on Census 2021 (Census 2022 for Scotland) and Land Cover Map 2021 input data. Data on population distribution for the United Kingdom is available from statistical offices in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland and provided to the public e.g. via the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Population data is typically provided in tabular form or, based on a range of different geographical units, in file types for geographical information systems (GIS), for instance as ESRI Shapefiles. The geographical units reflect administrative boundaries at different levels of detail, from Devolved Administration to Output Areas (OA), wards or intermediate geographies. While the presentation of data on the level of these geographical units is useful for statistical purposes, accounting for spatial variability for instance of environmental determinants of public health requires a more spatially homogeneous population distribution. For this purpose, the dataset presented here combines 2021/2022 UK Census population data on Output Area level with Land Cover Map 2021 land-use classes 'urban' and 'suburban' to create a consistent and comprehensive gridded population data product at 1 km x 1 km spatial resolution. The mapping product is based on British National Grid (OSGB36 datum).

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents in England and Wales by population density (number of usual residents per square kilometre). The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.

Area type

Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.

For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.

Lower Tier Local Authorities

Lower tier local authorities provide a range of local services. In England there are 309 lower tier local authorities. These are made up of non-metropolitan districts (181), unitary authorities (59), metropolitan districts (36) and London boroughs (33, including City of London). In Wales there are 22 local authorities made up of 22 unitary authorities. Of these local authority types, only non-metropolitan districts are not additionally classified as upper tier local authorities.

These data were generated to compare different methods of estimating population density from marked and unmarked animal populations. We compare conventional live trapping with two more modern, non-invasive field methods of population estimation: genetic fingerprinting from hair-tube sampling and camera trapping for the European pine marten (Martes martes). We used arrays of camera traps, live traps, and hair tubes to collect the relevant data in the Ring of Gullion in Northern Ireland. We apply marked spatial capture-recapture models to the genetic and live trapping data where individuals were identifiable, and unmarked spatial capture-recapture (uSCR), distance sampling (CT-DS), and random encounter models (REM) to the camera trap data where individual ID was not possible. All five approaches produced plausible and relatively consistent point estimates (0.41 – 0.99 animals per km2), despite differences in precision, cost, and effort being apparent. In addition to the data, we provide novel code for running unmarked spatial capture-recapture (uSCR) and random encounter models (REM) to the camera trap data where individual ID was not possible. Methods All fieldwork was carried out in the Ring of Gullion, Northern Ireland, UK. Cameras Thirty Bushnell HD Trophy Cam 8MP camera traps (model number: 119577) with 8GB SD cards were deployed during June and July 2019. Thirty Bushnell HD Trophy Cam 8MP camera traps (model number: 119577) with 8GB SD cards were deployed during June and July 2019. At the end of the survey period, camera traps were checked and for each detection (the first image in a trigger sequence of an individual pine marten) distance to animal (m) and angle of detection (°) were measured in situ. Noninvasive genetic sampling Twenty hair tubes based on those developed by Mullins et al. (2010), were deployed across the study site between June and July 2019. Hair-tubes were checked weekly and sticky patches and bait were replaced on each visit. Hair samples were frozen at -20oC prior to DNA extraction. Microsatellite analysis to identify individual pine marten was carried out using up to 11 microsatellite markers. Each sample was analysed in duplicate and only samples giving identical results in the replicates were scored. Live traps Twelve Tomahawk 205 live cage traps were deployed along two perpendicular transects spaced approximately 400m apart. Trapping was conducted from August - October 2019 with daily trap checks. Trapped animals were anaesthetised with an intramuscular injection of ketamine (25mg per kg) and midazolam (0.2mg per kg) and scanned for a microchip. Statistical analyses Spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) models were used to estimate density for both live trapping and gNIS (Efford & Boulanger, 2019). Occasion lengths for live trapping were one day, whilst for gNIS were one week. For live trapping, we specified a single-use detector type, whilst for gNIS we specified a proximity-based detector type. Density was calculated from camera traps using REM (Rowcliffe et al. 2008), CT-DS (Howe et al. 2017) and uSCR (Chandler & Royle, 2013).

This dataset contains the number of inhabitants per km² for the reference year 2006 and located within the Grid_ETRS89-LAEA_1K. The data set should be referred to GEOSTAT_Grid_POP_2006_1K. The dataset is compiled from the following data sources: aggregated residential population for the year 2006 (AT, SE, FI, SI, NL); estimated residential population for the year 2006 based on mixed national sources (EE, PT, FR, NO, PL, UK (England, Wales)); disaggregated residential population for the year 2006 using using population statistics at LAU2 level for 2006 as data input and Soil Sealing and Corine LC 2006 (BE, BG, CH, CZ, DE, EL, ES, HU, IE, IS, IT, LI, LT, LU, LV, MT, RO, SK, UK (Scotland, Northern Ireland) as ancillary data for the disaggregation. No data available for CY due to absent LAU2 data for Cyprus for the reference year 2006. The dataset is based on a product of the GEOSTAT project which is supported by the European Commission and the European Forum for Geostatistics EFGS. This abstract is based on the abstract provided with the original dataset (CSV file).

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.

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.

This file contains the National Statistics Postcode Lookup (NSPL) for the United Kingdom as at August 2022 in Comma Separated Variable (CSV) and ASCII text (TXT) formats. To download the zip file click the Download button. The NSPL relates both current and terminated postcodes to a range of current statutory geographies via ‘best-fit’ allocation from the 2021 Census Output Areas (national parks and Workplace Zones are exempt from ‘best-fit’ and use ‘exact-fit’ allocations) for England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland has the 2011 Census Output AreasIt supports the production of area based statistics from postcoded data. The NSPL is produced by ONS Geography, who provide geographic support to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and geographic services used by other organisations. The NSPL is issued quarterly. (File size - 184 MB).

This file contains the Standard Area Measurements (SAM) for 2011 travel to work areas (TTWA) in the United Kingdom as at 31 December 2011. 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). Four types of measurements are included: total extent, area to mean high water (coastline), area of inland water and area to mean high water excluding area of inland water (land area). The Eurostat-recommended approach is to use the ‘land area’ measurement to compile population density figures. The TTWAs used to create the Standard Area Measurements were built using Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) created by ONS, Datazones (DZs) supplied by the National Records for Scotland and Super Output Areas (SOAs) supplied by Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). The DZ and SOA supplied for Scotland and Northern Ireland were clipped to the coastline. This means the extent of the realm and area to mean high water measurements are identical for Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Scottish DZ had some areas of inland water removed although not all, such as Loch Lomond and Loch Ness amongst others. Consequently the area to mean high water measurements are lower than they would otherwise be and the inland water measurements aren't as high as they would otherwise be.Click the Download button to download the file.

All interviews were face-to-face in people`s homes and in the appropriate national language

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.

Information on Ireland's harbour seal population from survey conducted along the coastline of the Republic of Ireland during the species' annual moult in August 2003. AccConID=24 AccConstrDescription=This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms AccConstrDisplay=This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. AccConstrEN=Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) AccessConstraint=Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) AccessConstraints=None Acronym=None added_date=2009-05-29 12:11:29.413000 BrackishFlag=1 CDate=2009-06-09 cdm_data_type=Other CheckedFlag=1 Citation=M. Cronin, C. Duck, O. O. Cadhla, R. Nairn, D. Strong and C. O'Keeffe. 2007. An assessment of population size and distribution of harbour seals in the Republic of Ireland during the moult season in August 2003. Journal of Zoology: Vol. 273 pp. 131-139. Comments=None ContactEmail=None Conventions=COARDS, CF-1.6, ACDD-1.3 CurrencyDate=None DasID=1975 DasOrigin=Research DasType=Data DasTypeID=1 DateLastModified={'date': '2025-08-22 01:33:40.264606', 'timezone_type': 1, 'timezone': '+02:00'} DescrCompFlag=0 DescrTransFlag=0 Easternmost_Easting=-5.996 EmbargoDate=None EngAbstract=Information on Ireland's harbour seal population from survey conducted along the coastline of the Republic of Ireland during the species' annual moult in August 2003. EngDescr=The status of Ireland's harbour seal Phoca vitulina vitulina population is poorly understood. The most recent national population estimate dates back to the breeding season in 1978 and did not cover the entire coastline. Reliable up-to-date information on the abundance and distribution of harbour seals in Ireland is necessary to assess the conservation status of the species and for the effective identification, management and monitoring of special areas of conservation required for harbour seals under the EU Habitats Directive. To provide comprehensive current information on Ireland's harbour seal population, a geographically extensive survey was conducted along the coastline of the Republic of Ireland during the species' annual moult in August 2003. This complemented a similar survey of Northern Ireland, which was conducted in 2002. Using thermal imaging technology, haul-out groups of harbour seals and grey seals Halichoerus grypus were identified from the air, aerial-counts were obtained and compared with simultaneous ground-count data from selected sites. Harbour seal distribution recorded during the 2003 moult season was concentrated in the south-west, west and north-west of the country. This national survey yielded a minimum population estimate for the Republic of Ireland of 2905 harbour seals, delivering an effective baseline for current and future population research. FreshFlag=1 GBIF_UUID=7b3b8c69-23a5-43c1-bca0-2e719ba7dc6f geospatial_lat_max=55.44 geospatial_lat_min=51.47 geospatial_lat_units=degrees_north geospatial_lon_max=-5.996 geospatial_lon_min=-10.62 geospatial_lon_units=degrees_east infoUrl=None InputNotes=None institution=NPWS, UCC-CMRC License=https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 Lineage=Prior to publication data undergo quality control checked which are described in https://github.com/EMODnet/EMODnetBiocheck?tab=readme-ov-file#understanding-the-output MarineFlag=1 modified_sync=2021-02-05 00:00:00 Northernmost_Northing=55.44 OrigAbstract=None OrigDescr=None OrigDescrLang=English OrigDescrLangNL=Engels OrigLangCode=en OrigLangCodeExtended=eng OrigLangID=15 OrigTitle=None OrigTitleLang=English OrigTitleLangCode=en OrigTitleLangID=15 OrigTitleLangNL=Engels Progress=Completed PublicFlag=1 ReleaseDate=May 29 2009 12:00AM ReleaseDate0=2009-05-29 RevisionDate=None SizeReference=435 distribution records sourceUrl=(local files) Southernmost_Northing=51.47 standard_name_vocabulary=CF Standard Name Table v70 StandardTitle=Harbour seals in Republic of Ireland in August 2003 StatusID=1 subsetVariables=ScientificName,BasisOfRecord,YearCollected,MonthCollected,DayCollected,aphia_id TerrestrialFlag=1 time_coverage_end=2003-08-20T12:38:00Z time_coverage_start=2003-08-12T11:07:00Z UDate=2025-03-26 VersionDate=None VersionDay=None VersionMonth=5 VersionName=1 VersionYear=2009 VlizCoreFlag=1 Westernmost_Easting=-10.62

In 2024, the population of the United Kingdom was around **** million, with approximately **** million women and **** million men. Since 1953, the male population of the UK has grown by around *** million, while the female population has increased by approximately **** million. Throughout this provided time period, the female population of the UK has consistently outnumbered the male population. UK population one of the largest in Europe As of 2024, the population of the United Kingdom was the largest it has ever been, and with growth expected to continue, the forecasted population of the United Kingdom is expected to reach over ** million by the 2030s. Despite the relatively small size of its territory, the UK has one of the largest populations among European countries, slightly larger than France but smaller than Russia and Germany. As of 2024, the population density of the UK was approximately *** people per square kilometer, with London by far the most densely populated area, and Scotland the most sparsely populated. Dominance of London As seen in the data regarding population density, the population of the United Kingdom is not evenly distributed across the country. Within England, London has a population of over **** million, making it significantly bigger than the next largest cities of Birmingham and Manchester. As of 2024, Scotland's largest city, Glasgow had a population of around *** million, with the largest cities in Northern Ireland, and Wales being Belfast and Cardiff, which had populations of around ******* and ******* respectively.

The statistic depicts the median age of the population in the United Kingdom from 1950 to 2100*. The median age of a population is an index that divides the population into two equal groups: half of the population is older than the median age and the other half younger. In 2020, the median age of United Kingdom's population was 39.2 years. Population of the United Kingdom The United Kingdom (UK) includes Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Northern Ireland, and is a state located off the coast of continental Europe. The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, which means the Queen acts as representative head of state, while laws and constitutional issues are discussed and passed by a parliament. The total UK population figures have been steadily increasing, albeit only slightly, over the last decade; in 2011, the population growth rate was lower than in the previous year for the first time in eight years. Like many other countries, the UK and its economy were severely affected by the economic crisis in 2009. Since then, the unemployment rate has doubled and is only recovering slowly. UK inhabitants tend to move to the cities to find work and better living conditions; urbanization in the United Kingdom has been on the rise. At the same time, population density in the United Kingdom has been increasing due to several factors, for example, the rising number of inhabitants and their life expectancy at birth, an increasing fertility rate, and a very low number of emigrants. In fact, the United Kingdom is now among the 20 countries with the highest life expectancy at birth worldwide. As can be seen above, the median age of UK residents has also been increasing significantly since the seventies; another indicator for a well-working economy and society.