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.

The mid-year estimates refer to the population on 30 June of the reference year and are produced in line with the standard United Nations (UN) definition for population estimates. They are the official set of population estimates for the UK and its constituent countries, the regions and counties of England, and local authorities and their equivalents.

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.

In the past four centuries, the population of the Thirteen Colonies and United States of America has grown from a recorded 350 people around the Jamestown colony in Virginia in 1610, to an estimated 346 million in 2025. While the fertility rate has now dropped well below replacement level, and the population is on track to go into a natural decline in the 2040s, projected high net immigration rates mean the population will continue growing well into the next century, crossing the 400 million mark in the 2070s. Indigenous population Early population figures for the Thirteen Colonies and United States come with certain caveats. Official records excluded the indigenous population, and they generally remained excluded until the late 1800s. In 1500, in the first decade of European colonization of the Americas, the native population living within the modern U.S. borders was believed to be around 1.9 million people. The spread of Old World diseases, such as smallpox, measles, and influenza, to biologically defenseless populations in the New World then wreaked havoc across the continent, often wiping out large portions of the population in areas that had not yet made contact with Europeans. By the time of Jamestown's founding in 1607, it is believed the native population within current U.S. borders had dropped by almost 60 percent. As the U.S. expanded, indigenous populations were largely still excluded from population figures as they were driven westward, however taxpaying Natives were included in the census from 1870 to 1890, before all were included thereafter. It should be noted that estimates for indigenous populations in the Americas vary significantly by source and time period. Migration and expansion fuels population growth The arrival of European settlers and African slaves was the key driver of population growth in North America in the 17th century. Settlers from Britain were the dominant group in the Thirteen Colonies, before settlers from elsewhere in Europe, particularly Germany and Ireland, made a large impact in the mid-19th century. By the end of the 19th century, improvements in transport technology and increasing economic opportunities saw migration to the United States increase further, particularly from southern and Eastern Europe, and in the first decade of the 1900s the number of migrants to the U.S. exceeded one million people in some years. It is also estimated that almost 400,000 African slaves were transported directly across the Atlantic to mainland North America between 1500 and 1866 (although the importation of slaves was abolished in 1808). Blacks made up a much larger share of the population before slavery's abolition. Twentieth and twenty-first century The U.S. population has grown steadily since 1900, reaching one hundred million in the 1910s, two hundred million in the 1960s, and three hundred million in 2007. Since WWII, the U.S. has established itself as the world's foremost superpower, with the world's largest economy, and most powerful military. This growth in prosperity has been accompanied by increases in living standards, particularly through medical advances, infrastructure improvements, clean water accessibility. These have all contributed to higher infant and child survival rates, as well as an increase in life expectancy (doubling from roughly 40 to 80 years in the past 150 years), which have also played a large part in population growth. As fertility rates decline and increases in life expectancy slows, migration remains the largest factor in population growth. Since the 1960s, Latin America has now become the most common origin for migrants in the U.S., while immigration rates from Asia have also increased significantly. It remains to be seen how immigration restrictions of the current administration affect long-term population projections for the United States.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Great Britain Historical Database has been assembled as part of the ongoing Great Britain Historical GIS Project. The project aims to trace the emergence of the north-south divide in Britain and to provide a synoptic view of the human geography of Britain at sub-county scales. Further information about the project is available on A Vision of Britain webpages, where users can browse the database's documentation system online. The Great Britain Historical GIS Project has also produced digitised boundary data, which can be obtained from the UK Data Service Census Support service. Further information is available at census.ukdataservice.ac.uk Main Topics: The Great Britain Historical Database is a large database of British nineteenth and twentieth-century statistics. Where practical the referencing of spatial units has been integrated, data for different dates have been assembled into single tables. The Great Britain Historical Database currently contains :Statistics from the 1861 Census and the Registrar General's reports, 1851-1861 Employment statistics from the census, 1841-1931 Demographic statistics from the census, 1841-1931 Mortality statistics from the Registrar General's reports, 1861-1920 Marriage statistics from the Registrar General's reports, 1841-1870 Trade union statistics for the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE), 1851-1918 Trade union statistics for the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners (ASCJ), 1863-1912 Official poor law statistics, 1859-1915 and 1919-1939 Wage statistics, 1845-1906 Hours of work statistics, 1900-1913 Small debt statistics from county courts, 1847-1913 and 1938 There are six tables in this part of the Great Britain Historical Database : Lee_emp holds simplified and standardised versions of the country-level employment statistics for Great Britain given in the printed census reports from 1841 to 1931, using the employment categories defined by the Standard Industrial Classification. Emp1901m holds male employment statistics from the 1901 census for county boroughs, municipal boroughs and urban districts over 10,000 population in England and Wales. Emp1901f holds female employment statistics from the 1901 census for county boroughs, municipal boroughs and urban districts over 10,000 population in England and Wales. Emp1911m holds male employment statistics from the 1911 census for counties, county boroughs, municipal boroughs and urban districts over 10,000 population in England and Wales. Emp1911f holds female employment statistics from the 1911 census for counties, county boroughs, municipal boroughs and urban districts over 10,000 population in England and Wales. Emp1921 holds male and female employment statistics from the 1921 census for county boroughs, municipal boroughs, urban districts and rural districts, plus certain civil parishes in England and Wales. Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. The aim of this project was to analyse the changing geography of mortality decline in England and Wales between 1851 and 1911 via the cause of death by age data for registration districts published in the Registrar General's Decennial Supplements. Main Topics: 1851-1860 and 1861-1870 Mean population by registration district and sex, total deaths by registration district and sex, causes of death by registration district, sex and age group. 1871-1880 Mean population by registration district and sex, total deaths by registration district and sex, causes of death by registration district and age group, total marriages, total births. 1881-1890 and 1891-1900 Mean population by registration district and sex, total deaths by registration district and sex, causes of death by registration district and sex, causes of death by registration district and age group, total marriages, total births. Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Great Britain Historical Database has been assembled as part of the ongoing Great Britain Historical GIS Project. The project aims to trace the emergence of the north-south divide in Britain and to provide a synoptic view of the human geography of Britain at sub-county scales. Further information about the project is available on A Vision of Britain webpages, where users can browse the database's documentation system online. These data were originally published in the reports of the Registrar-General for Scotland. They were computerised by the Great Britain Historical GIS Project and its collaborators. They form part of the Great Britain Historical Database, which contains a wide range of geographically-located statistics, selected to trace the emergence of the north-south divide in Britain and to provide a synoptic view of the human geography of Britain, generally at sub-county scales. The data comprise complete transcriptions of a small number of tables selected from the Annual Reports, and Decennial Supplements, of the Registrar General: (1) Annual counts of births, marriages and deaths in 1861, 1881 and 1911. (2) Annual counts of births (and stillbirths), deaths, and deaths by 5- or 10-year age bands in 1921, 1930, 1931, 1941, 1950, 1951, 1961 and 1971. (3) Deaths by gender and 5-year age bands in 1881. (4) Cause of death by gender and 5-year age bands for the decades 1881-90 and 1891-1900. The data are always by county and sometimes also by burgh and district. Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research. Main Topics: All data are counts of births, marriages or deaths except for population totals taken from the census.

Main Topics: The Great Britain Historical Database is a large database of British nineteenth and twentieth-century statistics. Where practical the referencing of spatial units has been integrated, data for different dates have been assembled into single tables. The Great Britain Historical Database currently contains :Statistics from the 1861 Census and the Registrar General's reports, 1851-1861 Employment statistics from the census, 1841-1931 Demographic statistics from the census, 1841-1931 Mortality statistics from the Registrar General's reports, 1861-1920 Marriage statistics from the Registrar General's reports, 1841-1870 Trade union statistics for the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE), 1851-1918 Trade union statistics for the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners (ASCJ), 1863-1912 Official poor law statistics, 1859-1915 and 1919-1939 Wage statistics, 1845-1906 Hours of work statistics, 1900-1913 Small debt statistics from county courts, 1847-1913 and 1938 There are four tables in this part of the Great Britain Historical Database, providing a comprehensive account of changing administrative units in England and Wales over the period from 1888 to 1973: Lgd holds all the local government districts (county boroughs, London boroughs, municipal boroughs, rural districts and urban districts) in the GIS and acts as a gazetteer between the GIS and the Great Britain Historical Database. Main_ch holds the total information about each change, e.g. date, total population, total area, type of change, etc (This table is currently unavailable). Sub_area holds details of all the sub areas (ideally civil parishes) affected by the changes (This table is currently unavailable). Lgd_to_cha acts as a lookup table between lgd and main_ch (This table is currently unavailable). Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research.

In the United Kingdom, the crude birth rate in 1800 was 37 live births per thousand people, meaning that 3.7 percent of the population had been born in that year. From 1800 until 1830, the crude birth rate jumped between 35 and 45, before plateauing between 35 and 37 until the 1880s. From 1880 until the Second World War, the crude birth rate dropped to just under fifteen births per one thousand people, with the only increase coming directly after World War One. After WWII, the United Kingdom experienced a baby boom, as many soldiers returned home and the economy recovered, however this boom stopped in the late 1960s and the crude birth rate went into decline again. From the late 1970s until today, the crude birth rate has remained between eleven and fourteen, and is expected to be 11.5 in 2020.

The dataset covers the North Sea region (Great Britain, Netherlands, Belgium and part of France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Germany) and is made up of GIS vector-files consisting of three parts: 1. Population numbers of (approximately) 100 cities with the highest population, for reference years 1300, 1500, 1700, 1850, 1900, 1950, 1990 and 2015; 2. Primary infrastructures on water, land and rail for reference years 1500, 1900 and 2015; 3. Soil types for reference years 1500, 1900 and 2015. The data sets have been compiled on the basis of existing European datasets and literature, supplemented with further literature and data research. Together the datasets provide a more detailed insight into the urbanization process around the North Sea from 1300 to 2015. The datasets on soil and infrastructure should be considered as a first attempt (version 1) to map these data for the North Sea region for three different reference years.

The population of Europe was estimated to be 745 million in 2024, an increase of around 4 million when compared with 2012. Over 35 years between 1950 and 1985, the population of Europe grew by approximately 157.8 million. But 35 years after 1985 it was estimated to have only increased by around 38.7 million. Since the 1960s, population growth in Europe has fallen quite significantly and was even negative during the mid-1990s. While population growth has increased slightly since the low of -0.07 percent in 1998, the growth rate for 2020 was just 0.04 percent. Which European country has the biggest population? As of 2024, the population of Russia was estimated to be approximately 144.8 million and was by far Europe's largest country in terms of population, with Turkey being the second-largest at over 87 million. While these two countries both have territory in Europe, however, they are both only partially in Europe, with the majority of their landmasses being in Asia. In terms of countries wholly located on the European continent, Germany had the highest population at 84.5 million, and was followed by the United Kingdom and France at 69.1 million and 66.5 million respectively. Characteristics of Europe's population There are approximately 384.6 million females in Europe, compared with 359.5 million males, a difference of around 25 million. In 1950, however, the male population has grown faster than the female one, with the male population growing by 104.7 million, and the female one by 93.6 million. As of 2024, the single year of age with the highest population was 37, at 10.6 million, while in the same year there were estimated to be around 136 thousand people aged 100 or over.

The Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) boundaries have been generalised by 50 meters (point removed) for web display. This data has mainly been curated for education and teaching purposes. The data is generally rounded (at source) to the nearest 10. However, where there are more than 0 but less than 5 properties, then the value "1" is assigned. Because of the rounding, then the total population may not be equal to the sum of the constitent populations, for some areas.The "Mode 1" columns relate to the modal age grouping, i.e. the grouping with the most number of properties in it. "Mode 2" is the runner-up age grouping, i.e. the grouping with the second-most number of properties in it. It may be that there are two or more groupings with the same maximum population, in which case Mode 1 is assigned to the most recent one, Mode 2 to the second-most recent etc.Classifications are an average across the local area, rather than for individual houses, therefore the colour coding on a building is not necessarily indicative of that building. For more information about this data please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/council-tax-stock-of-properties-2015

In 1821, the population of the island of Ireland was just over 6.8 million people. During this time, the entire island was a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, after both islands were united by the Act of Union in 1800. The population enjoyed steady growth between 1821 and 1841, and it rose by almost 1.4 million people in this time, however the Great Famine, which lasted from 1845 to 1849, had a devastating impact on the population, causing it to drop from 8.18 million in 1841 to 6.55 million in 1851. If applying modern-day borders, the population of Northern Ireland was not growing as fast as the population of the Republic of Ireland before 1841, however it was not as severely affected by the famine, which was hardest felt in the east and south. The Great Hunger The famine was caused by a Europe-wide potato blight that contributed to mass starvation and death throughout the continent, although it's impact on Ireland was much harsher than anywhere else. The potato blight affected Ireland so severely as the majority of potatoes in Ireland were of a single variety which allowed the disease to spread much faster than in other countries. As the potato blight spread, the population became increasingly dependent on dairy and grain products, however a lot of these resources were relocated by the British military to combat food shortages in Britain. Due to disproportional dependency on potatoes, and mismanagement by the British government, over one million people died and a further one million emigrated. The Great Famine lasted from just 1845 to 1849, but it's legacy caused almost a century of population decline, and to this day, the overall population of Ireland has never exceeded it's pre-famine levels. Decline continues through partition The population decline continued well into the twentieth century, during which time the Republic of Ireland achieved independence from the British Empire. After centuries of fighting and rebellion against British rule, Irish nationalists finally gained independence from Britain in 1921, although the six counties with the largest Protestant populations formed Northern Ireland, which is still a part of the United Kingdom today. Although there was much conflict in Ireland in the twentieth century which claimed the lives of thousands of people (particularly during the Northern Irish Troubles), and despite Ireland's high emigration rate, the overall population began growing again in the second half of the 1900s. Recovery The population of the Republic of Ireland was at it's lowest in 1961, with 2.8 million people, which is almost four million fewer people than before the famine. Since then it has grown consistently, reaching 4.6 million in 2011 and expected to reach 5 million people by 2020. In Northern Ireland, the population began growing again from the beginning of the 1900s, but growth has been very slow. The only time it fell was in the 1970s, at the peak of The Troubles, where high unemployment and violence contributed to a lower birth rate and an increase in emigration. From the 1980s onwards, living standards improved and the population began growing again, reaching 1.8 million people in 2011.

In 1800, the population of the region of present-day India was approximately 169 million. The population would grow gradually throughout the 19th century, rising to over 240 million by 1900. Population growth would begin to increase in the 1920s, as a result of falling mortality rates, due to improvements in health, sanitation and infrastructure. However, the population of India would see it’s largest rate of growth in the years following the country’s independence from the British Empire in 1948, where the population would rise from 358 million to over one billion by the turn of the century, making India the second country to pass the billion person milestone. While the rate of growth has slowed somewhat as India begins a demographics shift, the country’s population has continued to grow dramatically throughout the 21st century, and in 2020, India is estimated to have a population of just under 1.4 billion, well over a billion more people than one century previously. Today, approximately 18% of the Earth’s population lives in India, and it is estimated that India will overtake China to become the most populous country in the world within the next five years.

Information on farm household income and farm household composition. Source agency: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Designation: National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: Farm Household Income and Household Composition, England

If you require the datasets in a more accessible format, please contact fbs.queries@defra.gsi.gov.uk

Background and guidance on the statistics

Information on farm household income and farm household composition was collected in the Farm Business Survey (FBS) for England for the first time in 2004/05. Collection of household income data is restricted to the household of the principal farmer from each farm business. For practical reasons, data is not collected for the households of any other farmers and partners. Two-thirds of farm businesses have an input only from the principal farmer’s household (see table 5). However, details of household composition are collected for the households of all farmers and partners in the business, but not employed farm workers.

Data on the income of farm households is used in conjunction with other economic information for the agricultural sector (e.g. farm business income) to help inform policy decisions and to help monitor and evaluate current policies relating to agriculture in the United Kingdom by Government. It also informs wider research into the economic performance of the agricultural industry.

This release gives the main results from the income and composition of farm households and the off-farm activities of the farmer and their spouse (Including common law partners) sections of the FBS. These sections include information on the household income of the principal farmer’s household, off-farm income sources for the farmer and spouse and incomes of other members of their household and the number of working age and pensionable adults and children in each of the households on the farm (the information on household composition can be found in Appendix B).

This release provides the main results from the 2013/14 FBS. The results are presented together with confidence intervals.

Survey content and methodology

The Farm Business Survey (FBS) is an annual survey providing information on the financial position and physical and economic performance of farm businesses in England. The sample of around 1,900 farm businesses covers all regions of England and all types of farming with the data being collected by face to face interview with the farmer. Results are weighted to represent the whole population of farm businesses that have at least 25 thousand Euros of standard output as recorded in the annual June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture. In 2013 there were just over 58 thousand farm businesses meeting this criteria.

Since 2009/10 a sub-sample of around 1,000 farms in the FBS has taken part in both the additional surveys on the income and composition of farm households and the off-farm activities of the farmer and their spouse. In previous years, the sub-sample had included over 1,600 farms. As such, caution should be taken when comparing to earlier years.

The farms that responded to the additional survey on household incomes and off-farm activities of the farmer and spouse had similar characteristics to those farms in the main FBS in terms of farm type and geographical location. However, there is a smaller proportion of very large farms in the additional survey than in the main FBS. Full details of the characteristic of responding farms can be found at Appendix A of the notice.

For further information about the Farm Business Survey please see: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs/series/farm-business-survey

Data analysis

The results from the FBS relate to farms which have a standard output of at least 25,000 Euros. Initial weights are applied to the FBS records based on the inverse sampling fraction for each design stratum (farm type by farm size). These weights are then adjusted (calibration weighting) so that they can produce unbiased estimators of a number of different target variables. Completion of the additional survey on household incomes and off-farm activities of the farmer and spouse was voluntary and a sample of around 1,000 farms was achieved. In order to take account of non-response, the results have been reweighted using a method that preserves marginal totals for populations according to farm type and farm size groups. As such, farm population totals for other classifications (e.g. regions) will not be in-line with results using the main FBS weights, nor will any results produced for variables derived from the rest of the FBS (e.g. farm business income).

Accuracy and reliability of the results

We show 95% confidence intervals against the results. These show the range of values that may apply to the figures. They mean that we are 95% confident that this range contains the true value. They are calcula

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. The dataset was originally created to allow the construction of age-specific mortality series and cohort mortality series for particular diseases, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present (in conjunction with the comparable mortality database created by the Office of National Statistics which covers 1901 – present). The dataset is fairly comprehensive and therefore allows both fine analysis of trends in single causes and also the construction of consistent aggregated categories of causes over time. Additionally, comparison of trends in individual causes can be used to infer transfers of deaths between categories over time, that may cause artifactual changes in mortality rates of particular causes. The data are presented by sex, allowing calculation of sex ratios. The age-specific and annual nature of the dataset allows the analysis of cause-specific mortality by birth cohort (assuming low migration at the national level). The database can be used in conjunction with the ONS database “Historic Mortality and Population Data, 1901-1992”, already in the UK Data Archive collection as SN 2902, to create continuous cause-of-death series for the period 1848-1992 (or later, if using more recent versions of the ONS database).

Using a newly constructed dataset of official morbidity figures based on colonial medical reports, this article studies the British and French colonial response to the development of fourteen selected diseases in colonial health care facilities in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire from circa 1900–1955. Yaws and malaria are shown to have received colonial attention due to their relatively high incidence in the facilities, while other diseases were deemed important for reasons other than the number of cases treated (sleeping sickness, yellow fever, smallpox). Despite similar forces surrounding colonial decision-making (such as the expansion of the colonial health care networks, population growth and the development of Western medicine), the British and French colonial response developed differently for part of the selected diseases (including sleeping sickness, measles and dysentery). For five commonly prevalent diseases (leprosy, dysentery, measles, gonorrhoea and syphilis) in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, the results in this article suggest that as of the 1930s, French colonial policymakers recognised their threat, while the British failed to do so sufficiently. A second new dataset of colonial vaccination campaigns (for ca. 1900–1955) formed the basis of an analysis of this aspect of the colonial response outside health care facilities. It finds that several diseases (including yellow fever) were addressed – more so in Côte d’Ivoire than in Ghana – but that smallpox vaccination campaigns trumped all others. The findings of this analysis indicate that extensive smallpox campaigns occurred earlier in both countries than previously suggested by the literature, and that the French colonial administration imposed a more elaborate programme.

During the eighteenth century, it is estimated that France's population grew by roughly fifty percent, from 19.7 million in 1700, to 29 million by 1800. In France itself, the 1700s are remembered for the end of King Louis XIV's reign in 1715, the Age of Enlightenment, and the French Revolution. During this century, the scientific and ideological advances made in France and across Europe challenged the leadership structures of the time, and questioned the relationship between monarchial, religious and political institutions and their subjects. France was arguably the most powerful nation in the world in these early years, with the second largest population in Europe (after Russia); however, this century was defined by a number of costly, large-scale conflicts across Europe and in the new North American theater, which saw the loss of most overseas territories (particularly in North America) and almost bankrupted the French crown. A combination of regressive taxation, food shortages and enlightenment ideologies ultimately culminated in the French Revolution in 1789, which brought an end to the Ancien Régime, and set in motion a period of self-actualization.

War and peace

After a volatile and tumultuous decade, in which tens of thousands were executed by the state (most infamously: guillotined), relative stability was restored within France as Napoleon Bonaparte seized power in 1799, and the policies of the revolution became enforced. Beyond France's borders, the country was involved in a series of large scale wars for two almost decades, and the First French Empire eventually covered half of Europe by 1812. In 1815, Napoleon was defeated outright, the empire was dissolved, and the monarchy was restored to France; nonetheless, a large number of revolutionary and Napoleonic reforms remained in effect afterwards, and the ideas had a long-term impact across the globe. France experienced a century of comparative peace in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars; there were some notable uprisings and conflicts, and the monarchy was abolished yet again, but nothing on the scale of what had preceded or what was to follow. A new overseas colonial empire was also established in the late 1800s, particularly across Africa and Southeast Asia. Through most of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, France had the second largest population in Europe (after Russia), however political instability and the economic prioritization of Paris meant that the entire country did not urbanize or industrialize at the same rate as the other European powers. Because of this, Germany and Britain entered the twentieth century with larger populations, and other regions, such as Austria or Belgium, had overtaken France in terms of industrialization; the German annexation of Alsace-Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian War was also a major contributor to this.

World Wars and contemporary France

Coming into the 1900s, France had a population of approximately forty million people (officially 38 million* due to to territorial changes), and there was relatively little growth in the first half of the century. France was comparatively unprepared for a large scale war, however it became one of the most active theaters of the First World War when Germany invaded via Belgium in 1914, with the ability to mobilize over eight million men. By the war's end in 1918, France had lost almost 1.4 million in the conflict, and approximately 300,000 in the Spanish Flu pandemic that followed. Germany invaded France again during the Second World War, and occupied the country from 1940, until the Allied counter-invasion liberated the country during the summer of 1944. France lost around 600,000 people in the course of the war, over half of which were civilians. Following the war's end, the country experienced a baby boom, and the population grew by approximately twenty million people in the next fifty years (compared to just one million in the previous fifty years). Since the 1950s, France's economy quickly grew to be one of the strongest in the world, despite losing the vast majority of its overseas colonial empire by the 1970s. A wave of migration, especially from these former colonies, has greatly contributed to the growth and diversity of France's population today, which stands at over 65 million people in 2020.

Occurrences of the search term 'drought' in articles published by nine British regional and national newspapers between 1800 and 1900, with surrounding context of 10 words on each side of the search term. The following newspapers were considered: The Era; Glasgow Herald; Hampshire and Portsmouth Telegraph; Ipswich Journal; Northern Echo; Pall Mall Gazette; Reynold’s Journal; Western Mail; and The Times. None of the individual newspapers cover this entire period; a number of titles were established part way through the nineteenth century and some have missing years. The publication dates and any missing years are detailed in the supporting information. The inventory provides information regarding publication date and instances of place-names within the UK that co-occur with the search term. Historic Droughts was a four year (2014 – 2018), £1.5m project funded by the UK Research Councils, aiming to develop a cross-disciplinary understanding of past drought episodes that have affected the United Kingdom (UK), with a view to developing improved tools for managing droughts in future. Drought and water scarcity (DWS) events are significant threats to livelihoods and wellbeing in many countries, including the United Kingdom (UK). Parts of the UK are already water-stressed and are facing a wide range of pressures, including an expanding population and intensifying exploitation of increasingly limited water resources. In addition, many regions may become significantly drier in future due to environmental changes, all of which implies major challenges to water resource management. However, DWS events are not simply natural hazards. There are also a range of socio-economic and regulatory factors that may influence the course of droughts, such as water consumption practices and abstraction licensing regimes. Consequently, if DWS events are to be better managed, there is a need for a more detailed understanding of the links between hydrometeorological and social systems during droughts. With this research gap in mind, the Historic Droughts project aimed to develop an interdisciplinary understanding of drought from a range of different perspectives. Based on an analysis of information from a wide range of sectors (hydrometeorological, environmental, agricultural, regulatory, social and cultural), the project characterised and quantified the history of drought and water scarcity events since the late 19th century. The Historic Droughts project involved eight institutions across the UK: the British Geological Survey the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Cranfield University, the University of Exeter, HR Wallingford, Lancaster University, the Met Office, and the University of Oxford. The texts were processed using CQPweb, Lancaster University’s software platform for large-corpus analysis. The inventory highlights instances when UK locations are mentioned in the news texts, and standardises these locations to a corresponding NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) area at an appropriate scale, which was achieved by the application of concordance geo-parsing to the newspaper dataset, and subsequent GIS processing. The inventory dataset includes references to drought which was happening or had happened in the United Kingdom and also includes general references to drought which are not linked to any particular location. Instances where texts referred to droughts in locations outside of the UK were removed, providing no UK place-names were simultaneously mentioned. All of the available nineteenth-century issues of each newspaper were searched.

This release provides the results of questions on animal health and welfare practices adopted by farmers. Link to main notice: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs/series/farm-business-survey#publications Survey methodology This release includes the results for the questions asked on business management practices. Comparisons to results from the previous business management practices module conducted in 2007/08 have where possible been included in this publication. Results from IT usage question were released on the 20 March 2013, for the detailed results please see: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/farm-practices-survey-october-2012-computer-usage The Farm Business Survey (FBS) is an annual survey providing information on the financial position and physical and economic performance of farm businesses in England. The sample of around 1,900 farm businesses covers all regions of England and all types of farming with the data being collected by face to face interview with the farmer. Results are weighted to represent the whole population of farm businesses that have at least 25,000 Euros of standard output as recorded in the annual June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture. In 2011 there were just over 56,000 farm businesses meeting this criteria. In the 2011/12 survey, an additional module was included to collect information on business management practices from a sub-sample of farm businesses. The information collected covered (i) business management practices such as benchmarking, risk management, IT usage and management accounting, (ii) practices specific to animal health and welfare e.g. biosecurity, veterinary strategy, animal health plans, (iii) the environmental footprint of farming, GHG abatement, energy use and, (iv) climate change adaptation. When combined with other data from the survey this helps to explain farm businesses’ behaviour and how this varies with parameters such as farm type, farm size and performance. Completion of the business management practices module was voluntary with a response rate of 71% in 2011/12. The farms that responded to the business management practices module had similar characteristics to those farms in the main FBS in terms of farm type and geographical location. There is a smaller proportion of large and very large farms in the module subset than in the main FBS For further information about the Farm Business Survey please see: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs/series/farm-business-survey Data analysis The results from the FBS relate to farms which have a standard output of at least 25,000 Euros . Initial weights are applied to the FBS records based on the inverse sampling fraction for each design stratum (farm type by farm size). These weights are then adjusted (calibration weighting) so that they can produce unbiased estimators of a number of different target variables. Completion of the business management practices module was voluntary and a sample of around 1,350 farms was achieved. In order to take account of non-response, the results have been reweighted using a method that preserves marginal totals for populations according to farm type and farm size groups. As such, farm population totals for other classifications (e.g. regions) will not be in-line with results using the main FBS weights, nor will any results produced for variables derived from the rest of the FBS (e.g. farm business income). Comparisons between 2007/08 and 2011/12 Results from the 2007/08 and 2011/12 business management practices modules are not directly comparable due to changes in the coverage of the survey and changes in the classification of farms for the 2010/11 campaign. In 2010/11 the survey was restricted to include farms which have at least 25,000 Euros of standard output; prior to this the survey was restricted to farms with ½ Standard Labour Requirement or more. The classification of farms into farm types was also revised for the 2010/11 Farm Business Survey, to bring the classification in line with European guidelines. Equivalent results from 2007/08 have been presented alongside 2011/12 results in many of the charts and tables; however comparisons should be treated with extreme caution due to the reasons given above. To enable more robust comparisons between the 2007/08 and 2011/12 business management practices module, we have examined the subset of farms that participated in both years (approximately 770 farms). For this subset of farms we have carried out significance testing using McNemar’s test to determine whether the differences observed between the two time periods are statistically significant. The McNemar’s test is applied to 2x2 contingency tables, with matched pairs of subjects, to determine whether the row and column marginal frequencies are equal. Where a statistically significant difference has been observed this has been indicated on the tables and charts for the full module results with a *. Commentary alongside the charts and tables will refer to this analysis rather than make comparisons with the 2007/08 data displayed. Accuracy and reliability of the results Where possible, we have shown 95% confidence intervals against the figures. These show the range of values that may apply to the figures. They mean that we are 95% confident this range contains the true value . They are calculated as the standard errors (se) multiplied by 1.96 to give the 95% confidence interval (95% CI). The standard errors only give an indication of the sampling error. They do not reflect any other sources of survey errors, such as non-response bias. The confidence limits shown are appropriate for comparing groups within the same year; they should not be used for comparing, different years’ results from the Farm Business Survey since they do not allow for the fact that in the FBS many of the same farms contributed in both years. We have also shown error bars on the figures in this notice. These error bars represent the 95% confidence intervals for the figures (as defined above).. Estimates based on less than 5 observations have been suppressed to prevent disclosure of the identity of the contributing farms. Estimates based on less than 15 observations have been highlighted in italics in the tables and should be treated with caution as they are likely to be less precise. Definitions Economic performance for each farm is measured as the ratio between economic output (mainly sales revenue) and inputs (costs+ unpaid labour). The higher the ratio, the higher the economic efficiency and performance. Performance bands based on economic performance percentiles are as follows: Low performers - farmers who took part in the Business Management Practices survey and were in the bottom 25% of economic performers in this sample Medium performers -farmers who took part in the Business Management Practices survey and were in the middle 50% of performers in this sample High performers - farmers who took part in the Business Management Practices survey and were in the top 25% of performers in this sample. These are based on economic performance in 2011/12. Availability of results Defra statistical notices can be viewed on the Food and Farming Statistics pages on the Defra website at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs/about/statistics. This site also shows details of future publications, with pre-announced dates.