In 2024, the population of Scotland was approximately 5.5 million, compared with 2000 when the population was just over five million. Between 1974 and 2000, the population of Scotland fell by 172,600, before growing at a relatively fast rate after 2000, and surpassing the 1974 population by 2010.

Principal projection for Scotland including population by broad age group, components of change and summary statistics.

In 2024, there were approximately 650,300 people living in Glasgow, with a further 530,680 people living in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, the first and second most-populated Scottish council areas respectively. The region of Fife is also heavily populated, with approximately 374,760 people living there. The least populated areas are the islands of Scotland such as Orkney, estimated to have only 22,020 people there.

Principal projection for Scotland - population by five-year age groups and sex.

Estimates of the usual resident population for the UK as at 30 June of the reference year.

Provided by administrative area, single year of age and sex.

Source agency: Office for National Statistics

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Population Estimates for UK, England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

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 Council area boundary dataset was created December 2013 by NRS Geography branch. The dataset has been cliipped to MHW and inland water has been removed. If users want details of the complete OS BoundaryLine product they should go to: http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government /products/boundary-line.html Population estimates from the 2011 Census have been included in this dataset. Data has been extracted from 'Table QS103SC - Age by single year'. Information on the variables and associated classifications for the topics are available on the Scotland's Census website: http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/variables In order to protect against disclosure of personal information, some records have been swapped between different geographic areas. Some cell values will be affected, particularly small values at the most detailed geographies.

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.

This statistic shows the distribution of non-white ethnic backgrounds in Scotland in 2018. 96 percent of the population identified as white. The next highest ethnic group was Asians with 2.6 percent.

Data shows projected population for Glasgow City Council (2012 Based) for the years 2012-2037. A projection is a calculation which shows what happens if particular assumptions are made. It is important to have high quality statistics on projected population change as this can be used for policy development, planning and providing public services in different geographical areas. They are used in central and local finance allocation, informing the provision of nurseries or day care centres, informing local and national policy, housing and land use planning, health care planning among others. They are trends based and not policy based of what the government expects to happen. They are affected by many social and economic factors including policies adopted by the central and local governments. The assumptions made for the datasets are based on the trends in 2012 and this is due to change in the following years as affected by factors listed above. More information about Population Projections can be found here (c) Crown copyright. Data supplied by National Records of Scotland Website Licence: None migration-assumption-for-principal-projection-2012.json - https://dataservices.open.glasgow.gov.uk/Download/Organisation/cb95330b-d7c0-472b-b3a7-a1b520bffd18/Dataset/fd581213-acd9-4c64-a8af-ddb1313872ba/File/0d3a8cdb-7501-44fe-acdf-4424b64aba91/Version/c6ce2385-4d55-474b-be48-f5197b723355 population-projection-by-sex-and-age-group-2012-based.json - https://dataservices.open.glasgow.gov.uk/Download/Organisation/cb95330b-d7c0-472b-b3a7-a1b520bffd18/Dataset/fd581213-acd9-4c64-a8af-ddb1313872ba/File/ba3aae9d-01f1-4111-9fc6-79a463292046/Version/2d3aa181-e0d1-4cd3-ab07-6df09c2d896e projected-births-in-glasgow.json - https://dataservices.open.glasgow.gov.uk/Download/Organisation/cb95330b-d7c0-472b-b3a7-a1b520bffd18/Dataset/fd581213-acd9-4c64-a8af-ddb1313872ba/File/e6e0d838-da42-4d11-84a4-8761621817dc/Version/07d94424-6d8a-4dd0-8234-24593df050a8 projected-pop-change-in-glasgow-2012-based.json - https://dataservices.open.glasgow.gov.uk/Download/Organisation/cb95330b-d7c0-472b-b3a7-a1b520bffd18/Dataset/fd581213-acd9-4c64-a8af-ddb1313872ba/File/21d74834-681b-42ff-b25e-e5eaabc05781/Version/ae2016b2-349c-4cc7-a34d-583a49556d3d

London was by far the largest urban agglomeration in the United Kingdom in 2025, with an estimated population of *** million people, more than three times as large as Manchester, the UK’s second-biggest urban agglomeration. The agglomerations of Birmingham and Leeds / Bradford had the third and fourth-largest populations, respectively, while the biggest city in Scotland, Glasgow, was the fifth largest. Largest cities in Europe Two cities in Europe had larger urban areas than London, with Istanbul having a population of around **** million and the Russian capital Moscow having a population of over **** million. The city of Paris, located just over 200 miles away from London, was the second-largest city in Europe, with a population of more than **** million people. Paris was followed by London in terms of population size, and then by the Spanish cities of Madrid and Barcelona, at *** million and *** million people, respectively. The Italian capital, Rome, was the next largest city at *** million, followed by Berlin at *** million. London’s population growth Throughout the 1980s, the population of London fluctuated from a high of **** million people in 1981 to a low of **** million inhabitants in 1988. During the 1990s, the population of London increased once again, growing from ****million at the start of the decade to **** million by 1999. London's population has continued to grow since the turn of the century, and despite declining between 2019 and 2021, it reached *** million people in 2023 and is forecast to reach almost *** million by 2047.

In 2024, the population of the United Kingdom reached 69.3 million, compared with 68.5 million in 2023. The UK population has more than doubled since 1871 when just under 31.5 million lived in the UK and has grown by around 10.4 million since the start of the twenty-first century. For most of the twentieth century, the UK population steadily increased, with two noticeable drops in population occurring during World War One (1914-1918) and in World War Two (1939-1945). Demographic trends in postwar Britain After World War Two, Britain and many other countries in the Western world experienced a 'baby boom,' with a postwar peak of 1.02 million live births in 1947. Although the number of births fell between 1948 and 1955, they increased again between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s, with more than one million people born in 1964. Since 1964, however, the UK birth rate has fallen from 18.8 births per 1,000 people to a low of just 10.2 in 2020. As a result, the UK population has gotten significantly older, with the country's median age increasing from 37.9 years in 2001 to 40.7 years in 2022. What are the most populated areas of the UK? The vast majority of people in the UK live in England, which had a population of 58.6 million people in 2024. By comparison, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland had populations of 5.5 million, 3.2 million, and 1.9 million, respectively. Within England, South East England had the largest population, at over 9.6 million, followed by the UK's vast capital city of London, at almost 9.1 million. London is far larger than any other UK city in terms of urban agglomeration, with just four other cities; Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, and Glasgow, boasting populations that exceed one million people.

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).

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.

This file contains the digital vector boundaries for Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics Level 1, in the United Kingdom, as at January 2018.

NUTS areas in England and Wales are unchanged but there are changes in Scotland (at NUTS2) and in Northern Ireland (NUTS3). In Scotland a fifth NUTS2 area has been created (Southern Scotland), while in Northen Ireland the new NUTS3 areas will now match the 11 local government districts.

• Full resolution - extent of the realm (usually this is the Mean Low Water mark but in some cases boundaries extend beyond this to include off shore islands);
  
• Full resolution - clipped to the coastline (Mean High Water mark);
  
• Generalised (20m) - clipped to the coastline (Mean High Water mark);
  
• Super generalised (200m) - clipped to the coastline (Mean High Water mark) and
  
• Ultra generalised (500m) - clipped to the coastline (Mean High Water mark).
  

Contains both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.

Download File Sizes

• Full resolution - extent of the realm (30 MB)
• Full resolution - clipped to the coastline (34 MB)
• Generalised (20m) - clipped to the coastline (3 MB)
• Super generalised (200m) - clipped to the coastline (648 KB)
• Ultra generalised (500m) - clipped to the coastline (263 KB).

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REST URL of ArcGIS for INSPIRE View Service – https://ons-inspire.esriuk.com/arcgis/rest/services/Eurostat_Boundaries/NUTS_Level_1_January_2018_Boundaries/MapServer/exts/InspireView

REST URL of ArcGIS for INSPIRE Feature Download Service – https://ons-inspire.esriuk.com/arcgis/rest/services/Eurostat_Boundaries/NUTS_Level_1_January_2018_Boundaries/MapServer/exts/InspireFeatureDownload

REST URL of Feature Service (use these URLs in maps, where you can view pop-up information and change the styling) - https://ons-inspire.esriuk.com/arcgis/rest/services/Eurostat_Boundaries/NUTS_Level_1_January_2018_Boundaries/FeatureServer

2020-based interim national population projections with assumptions of possible future international migration that reflect estimates of international migration to year ending June 2022. The potential future population size of the UK, Great Britain, England and Wales, England, Scotland and Wales. These statistics are widely used in planning, for example, fiscal projections, health, education and pensions. Not national statistics.

The crime rate in the United Kingdom was highest in England and Wales in 2024/25, at **** crimes per 1,000 people, compared with Scotland, which had **** crimes per 1,000 population, and Northern Ireland, at **** crimes per 1,000 people in 2023/24. During this time period, the crime rate of England and Wales has usually been the highest in the UK, while Scotland's crime rate has declined the most, falling from **** crimes per 1,000 people in 2002/03, to just **** by 2021/22. Overall crime on the rise In 2024/25, there were approximately **** million crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales. Although this was a slight decline on the previous two years, it was still far higher than during the mid-2010s. While crime declined quite significantly between 2002/03 and 2013/14, this trend went into reverse in subsequent years. While there are no easy explanations for the recent uptick in crime, it is possible that reduced government spending on the police service was at least partly to blame. In 2009/10, for example, government spending on the police stood at around **** billion pounds, with this cut to *****billion in 2013/14. One of the most visible consequences of these cuts was a sharp reduction in the number of police officers in the UK. Between 2010 and 2017, the number of officers fell by 20,000, although the number of officers returned to pre-austerity levels by the 2020s. A creaking justice system During the period of austerity, the Ministry of Justice as a whole saw its budget sharply decline, from *** billion pounds in 2009/10 to just **** billion by 2015/16. Although there has been a reversal of the cuts to budgets and personnel in the justice system, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the depleted service hard in 2020. A backlog of cases grew rapidly, putting a strain on the ability of the justice system to process cases quickly. In 2022, for example, it took on average *** days for a crown court case to go from offence to conclusion, compared with *** days in 2018. There is also the issue of overcrowding in prisons, with the number of prisoners in England and Wales dangerously close to operational capacity in recent years.