The population of England was estimated to have reached almost 57.7 million in 2023, compared with 53.9 million ten years earlier in 2013. Compared with 1971, the population of England has grown by over ten million.
In 2023, the population of the United Kingdom reached 68.3 million, compared with 67.6 million in 2022. The UK population has more than doubled since 1871 when just under 31.5 million lived in the UK and has grown by around 8.2 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 57.7 million people in 2023. By comparison, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland had populations of 5.44 million, 3.13 million, and 1.9 million, respectively. Within England, South East England had the largest population, at over 9.38 million, followed by the UK's vast capital city of London, at 8.8 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.
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Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the London, UK metro area from 1950 to 2025. United Nations population projections are also included through the year 2035.
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United Kingdom Population: Wales: Aged <16 data was reported at 593.302 Person th in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 557.079 Person th for 2016. United Kingdom Population: Wales: Aged <16 data is updated yearly, averaging 590.000 Person th from Jun 1971 (Median) to 2017, with 47 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 693.000 Person th in 1973 and a record low of 554.841 Person th in 2014. United Kingdom Population: Wales: Aged <16 data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office for National Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s UK – Table UK.G002: Population: England and Wales.
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
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 :
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United Kingdom UK: Population: as % of Total: Male: Aged 15-64 data was reported at 64.497 % in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 64.773 % for 2016. United Kingdom UK: Population: as % of Total: Male: Aged 15-64 data is updated yearly, averaging 66.146 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 67.543 % in 1985 and a record low of 63.796 % in 1973. United Kingdom UK: Population: as % of Total: Male: Aged 15-64 data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Male population between the ages 15 to 64 as a percentage of the total male population. Population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship.; ; World Bank staff estimates based on age/sex distributions of United Nations Population Division's World Population Prospects: 2017 Revision.; Weighted average;
Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
This data was originally published in the reports of the Registrar-General for England and Wales. It was computerised by the Great Britain Historical GIS Project and its collaborators. It forms 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.
In this period, 1911 to 1973, the main reporting units were over 1,500 local government districts, as compared to c. 600 Registration Districts pre-1911. As a result, most tabulations provide data only for the larger urban units, plus aggregates covering all Rural Districts and all other urban units in each county. This study centers on the main exception to this, an annual table providing counts of all births, all deaths and all infant deaths in all districts, appearing in the Registrar-General's Annual Reports from 1911 to 1920, then in the RG's Statistical Reviews from 1921 to 1973. Later reports include additional variables. This study also includes more limited transcriptions of causes of death and age-specific mortality.
The main annual table for local government districts 1911-73 provides an estimate of total population and counts of births and deaths for all years. Pre-1973, births are categorised by legitimacy as well as sex. Infant deaths under 1 year are counted for all years, stillbirths and deaths under 4 weeks from 1949, and deaths under 1 week from 1958. Various rates are also computed. Slightly different data were reported during World War 2.
The table of annual age-specific causes of death holds data for census years only, 1921 to 1971,for, typically, "London and Metropolitan Boroughs, County Boroughs, Aggregates of other Urban and of Rural Districts in each Administrative County", for varying numbers of causes of death (1921 = 33, 1961 = 64, 1971 = 7) and, generally, ten-year age bands.
The other two tables provide more information on causes of death and age at death, but only for the 1910s and 1920s (Graham Mooney contributed to the table of causes of death 1911-20).
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.
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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).
In 2021, the total fertility rate, in the United Kingdom fell to 1.53 births per woman, compared with 1.56 in 2020. The fertility rate in the most recent year is the lowest in this provided time period, and far below the peak of 2.65 births per woman recorded in 1964.
Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
The General Household Survey (GHS), ran from 1971-2011 (the UKDS holds data from 1972-2011). It was a continuous annual national survey of people living in private households, conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The main aim of the survey was to collect data on a range of core topics, covering household, family and individual information. This information was used by government departments and other organisations for planning, policy and monitoring purposes, and to present a picture of households, families and people in Great Britain. In 2008, the GHS became a module of the Integrated Household Survey (IHS). In recognition, the survey was renamed the General Lifestyle Survey (GLF). The GLF closed in January 2012. The 2011 GLF is therefore the last in the series. A limited number of questions previously run on the GLF were subsequently included in the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN).
Secure Access GHS/GLF
The UKDS holds standard access End User Licence (EUL) data for 1972-2006. A Secure Access version is available, covering the years 2000-2011 - see SN 6716 General Lifestyle Survey, 2000-2011: Secure Access.
History
The GHS was conducted annually until 2011, except for breaks in 1997-1998 when the survey was reviewed, and 1999-2000 when the survey was redeveloped. Further information may be found in the ONS document An overview of 40 years of data (General Lifestyle Survey Overview - a report on the 2011 General Lifestyle Survey) (PDF). Details of changes each year may be found in the individual study documentation.
EU-SILC
In 2005, the European Union (EU) made a legal obligation (EU-SILC) for member states to collect additional statistics on income and living conditions. In addition, the EU-SILC data cover poverty and social exclusion. These statistics are used to help plan and monitor European social policy by comparing poverty indicators and changes over time across the EU. The EU-SILC requirement was integrated into the GHS/GLF in 2005. After the closure of the GLF, EU-SILC was collected via the Family Resources Survey (FRS) until the UK left the EU in 2020.
Reformatted GHS data 1973-1982 - Surrey SPSS Files
SPSS files were created by the University of Surrey for all GHS years from 1973 to 1982 inclusive. The early files were restructured and the case changed from the household to the individual with all of the household information duplicated for each individual. The Surrey SPSS files contain all the original variables as well as some extra derived variables (a few variables were omitted from the data files for 1973-76). In 1973 only, the section on leisure was not included in the Surrey SPSS files. This has subsequently been made available, however, and is now held in a separate study, General Household Survey, 1973: Leisure Questions (SN 3982). Records for the original GHS 1973-1982 ASCII files have been removed from the UK Data Archive catalogue, but the data are still preserved and available upon request.
The main GHS consisted of a household questionnaire, completed by the Household Reference Person (HRP), and an individual questionnaire, completed by all adults aged 16 and over resident in the household. A number of different trailers each year covering extra topics were included in later (post-review) surveys in the series from 2000.
Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. This data collection uses Census returns to construct a consistent time series of population for urban centres in England and Wales 1801-1911. This allows the urban development and structure of England and Wales to be analysed, and provides a resource to other researchers seeking to make ready comparisons of other information with urban development across the nineteenth century. It has been derived from the work of three previous researchers: (1) Chris Law (1967) originally prepared it; (2) Brian Robson (1973) developed the data further and transcribed Law’s data and preserved it, and also added information on some smaller settlements for years before they became ‘urban’ under Law’s criteria; (3) Jack Langton (2000) undertook a different study for the 17th century to 1841 using the same basic methods and definitions as Law-Robson for 1801 and 1841 and corrected various errors and omissions in the Law-Robson material; he also disaggregated the Law-Robson data for the period to 1841 to reflect the fact that many places had not coalesced into large towns by this date. The database here combines these three sources. It was prepared by Bob Bennett (2011) for a study of local economies and chamber of commerce business representation.
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This dataset is about books and is filtered where the book is A problem of great importance : population, race, and power in the British Empire, 1918-1973, featuring 7 columns including author, BNB id, book, book publisher, and ISBN. The preview is ordered by publication date (descending).
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a study of the employment circumstances of the UK population. It is the largest household study in the UK and provides the official measures of employment and unemployment.The first Labour Force Survey (LFS) in the United Kingdom was conducted in 1973, under the terms of a Regulation derived from the Treaty of Rome. The provision of information for the Statistical Office of the European Communities (SOEC) continued to be one of the reasons for carrying out the survey on an annual basis. SOEC co-ordinated information from labour force surveys in the member states in order to assist the EC in such matters as the allocation of the Social Fund. The survey was carried out biennially from 1973 to 1983 and was increasingly used by UK government departments to obtain information which would assist in the framing of social and economic policy. By 1983 it was being used by the Employment Department (now the Department for Work and Pensions) to obtain information which was not available from other sources or was only available for Census years. From 1984 the survey was carried out annually, and since that time the LFS has consisted of two elements:
Users should note that only the data from the spring quarter and the 'boost' survey were included in the annual datasets for public release, and that only data from 1975-1991 are available from the UK Data Archive. The depositor recommends only considered use of data for 1975 and 1977 (SNs 1757 and 1758), as the concepts behind the definitions of economic activity changed and are not comparable with later years. Also the survey methodology was being developed at the time and so the estimates may not be reliable enough to use.
During 1991 the survey was developed, so that from spring 1992 the data were made available quarterly, with a quarterly sample size approximately equivalent to that of the previous annual data. The Quarterly Labour Force Survey series therefore superseded the annual LFS series, and is held at the Data Archive under GN 33246.
The study is being conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the government's largest producer of statistics. They compile independent information about the UK's society and economy which provides evidence for policy and decision making, and for directing resources to where they are needed most. The ten-yearly census, measures of inflation, the National Accounts, and population and migration statistics are some of our highest-profile outputs.
The whole country.
Sample survey data [ssd]
Stratified multi-stage sample; for further details see annual reports. Until 1983 two sampling frames were used; in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, the Valuation Roll provided the basis for a sample which, in England and Wales, included all 69 metropolitan districts, and a two-stage selection from among the remaining non-metropolitan districts. In Northern Ireland wards were the primary sampling units. In Scotland, the Address File (i.e. post codes) was used as the basis for a stratified sample.From 1983 the Postoffice Address File has been used instead of the Valuation Roll in England and Wales. In 1984 sample rotation was introduced along with a panel element, the quarterly survey, which uses a two-stage clustered sample design.
The sample comprises about 90,000 addresses drawn at random from the rating lists in 190 different areas of England and Wales With such a large sample, it Will happen by chance that a small number of addresses which were selected at random for the 1979 survey Will come up again In addition 2,000 addresses in 8 of the areas selected in 1979 have been deliberately re-selected again this time (me Interviewers who get these addresses In their work w,ll receive a special letter to take with them.)
The sample is drawn from the "small users" sub-file of the Postcode Address File (PAF), which is a list of all addresses (delivery points) to which mail is delivered, prepared by the Post OffIce and held on computer. "Small users" are delivery points that receive less than 25 afiicles of mail a day and include all but a small proportion of private households. The PAF is updated regularly by the Post Office but, as mentioned in Chapter 1, there was an interruption in the supply of updates in the period leading up to the 1988 msurvey. As a result one third of the sample was drawn from the PAF as at March 1986 and two thirds from the sample as at September 1986.
Sample sizes and response rates Numbers of households who answered the questions in the Housing. Trailer were 37,761 in 1988. The corresponding response rates were 82.5 percent. Response rates were highest in East Anglia with nearly 89 percent in 1988, lowest in Inner London with 73 percent in 1988.
One of the limitations of the LFS is that the sample design provides no guarantee of adequate coverage of any industry, as the survey is not industrially stratified. The LFS coverage also omits communal establishments, except NHS housing, students in halls of residence and at boarding schools. Members of the armed forces are only included if they live in private accommodation. Also, workers under 16 are not covered. As in previous years, the sample for the boost survey was drawn in a single stage in the most densely populated areas, in two stages elsewhere. The areas where the sample was drawn in a single stage were:
(I) local authority districts in the metropolitan counties and Greater London; (II) districts which, based on the 1981 Census.
Face-to-face [f2f]
All questions in the specification are laid out using the same format. Some questions (for instance USUWRKM) have a main group routed to them, but subsets of this group are asked variations of the question. In such cases the main routing is at the foot of the question as usual, and the subsets are listed separately above it, with the individual aspect of the routing indented slightly from the left of the page.
In addition to the information on the address list, the address and serial number is also pre-printed on the E questionnaire to save time and increase accuracy. You will see that each E questionnaire has been pre-printed with household number 01. Where there is more than one household to be interviewed, you will need to enter the information on the blank E questionnaires provided.
Information Technology Centres provides one-year training and practical work experience course in the use of computers and word processors and other aspects of information technology (eg teletex, editing, computer maintenance).
Method of calculating response rates The response rate indicates how many interviews were achieved as a proportion of those eligible for the survey. The formula used is as follows: RR = (FR + PR)/(FR + PR + OR + CR + RHQ + NC + RRI*) where RR = response rate, FR = full response, PR = partial response, OR = outright refusal, CR = circumstantial refusal, RHQ = refusal to HQ, NC = non contact, RRI = refusal to re-interview, *applies to waves two to five only.
The combined sample for tne UK IS over 63,00U householrls (60,000 for Great Britain). the sample size is intended to be sufficiently large to allow reliable informatlon to be produced at th national and regional levels, and also to allow analysls of fairly small subgroups of the population. The response rate achieved averaged between 80 and 85 percent.
As with any sample survey, the results of the Labour Force Survey are subject to sampling errors. In addition, the results of any sample survey are affected by non-sampling errors, i.e. the whole variety of errors other then those due to sampling. As with all sample surveys, Labour Force Survey results are subject to sarnphng error. The survey consists of only one of a number of possible samples, and had a different sample been taKen a different estimate would probably leave resulted sampling error is the measure of this variatlon. Sampling error can be reduced by stratifying the sample (although the increased error caused by clustering cannot be ehmmated by tires means). The stratum III boost survey PSUS were stratified by the proportion of economically actwe men who were unemployed in the local authorrty district according to the 1981 Census, while in Scotland the strata II and Ill sample was stratified by the percentage of persons in employment who were working in manual occupations These stratificatlon’s tend to reduce samping error in relahon to measurements of charactenshcs related to the factors used in strahficatlon. Hence lt is unappropriate to calculate sampling error for the LFS assuming simple random sampling, and errors are, therefore, estimated taking account of the sample design Standard errors for Great Bntam were estrmated (taking the complex sample design into account) by combining the variances for the major strata of the
The population of Europe was estimated to be 742.2 million in 2023, an increase of around 2.2 million when compared with 2013. 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 2021, the population of Russia was estimated to be approximately 145.9 million and was by far Europe's largest country in terms of population, with Turkey being the second-largest at over 85 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 83.9 million, and was followed by the United Kingdom and France at 68.2 million and 65.4 million respectively.
Characteristics of Europe's population There are approximately 386.5 million females in Europe, compared with 361.2 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 2021, the single year of age with the highest population was 34, at 10.7 million, while in the same year there were estimated to be around 136 thousand people aged 100 or over.
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United Kingdom UK: Age Dependency Ratio: % of Working-Age Population data was reported at 56.810 % in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 56.175 % for 2016. United Kingdom UK: Age Dependency Ratio: % of Working-Age Population data is updated yearly, averaging 54.363 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 60.489 % in 1973 and a record low of 51.330 % in 2007. United Kingdom UK: Age Dependency Ratio: % of Working-Age Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Age dependency ratio is the ratio of dependents--people younger than 15 or older than 64--to the working-age population--those ages 15-64. Data are shown as the proportion of dependents per 100 working-age population.; ; World Bank staff estimates based on age distributions of United Nations Population Division's World Population Prospects: 2017 Revision.; Weighted average; Relevance to gender indicator: this indicator implies the dependency burden that the working-age population bears in relation to children and the elderly. Many times single or widowed women who are the sole caregiver of a household have a high dependency ratio.
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United Kingdom Population: Scotland: Female: Aged 16 to 59 data was reported at 1,776.604 Person th in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 1,775.180 Person th for 2016. United Kingdom Population: Scotland: Female: Aged 16 to 59 data is updated yearly, averaging 1,533.000 Person th from Jun 1971 (Median) to 2017, with 47 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,776.604 Person th in 2017 and a record low of 1,452.000 Person th in 1973. United Kingdom Population: Scotland: Female: Aged 16 to 59 data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office for National Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.G003: Population: Scotland.
This data collection uses Census returns to construct a consistent time series of population for urban centres in England and Wales 1801-1911. This allows the urban development and structure of England and Wales to be analysed, and provides a resource to other researchers seeking to make ready comparisons of other information with urban development across the nineteenth century. It has been derived from the work of three previous researchers: (1) Chris Law (1967) originally prepared it; (2) Brian Robson (1973) developed the data further and transcribed Law’s data and preserved it, and also added information on some smaller settlements for years before they became ‘urban’ under Law’s criteria; (3) Jack Langton (2000) undertook a different study for the 17th century to 1841 using the same basic methods and definitions as Law-Robson for 1801 and 1841 and corrected various errors and omissions in the Law-Robson material; he also disaggregated the Law-Robson data for the period to 1841 to reflect the fact that many places had not coalesced into large towns by this date. The database here combines these three sources. It was prepared by Bob Bennett (2011) for a study of local economies and chamber of commerce business representation.
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United Kingdom Population: Scotland: Male: Aged 5 to 14 data was reported at 297.604 Person th in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 292.673 Person th for 2016. United Kingdom Population: Scotland: Male: Aged 5 to 14 data is updated yearly, averaging 328.000 Person th from Jun 1971 (Median) to 2017, with 47 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 470.000 Person th in 1973 and a record low of 285.000 Person th in 2013. United Kingdom Population: Scotland: Male: Aged 5 to 14 data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office for National Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.G003: Population: Scotland.
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United Kingdom Population: Wales: Female: Aged <16 data was reported at 289.062 Person th in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 271.410 Person th for 2016. United Kingdom Population: Wales: Female: Aged <16 data is updated yearly, averaging 288.000 Person th from Jun 1971 (Median) to 2017, with 47 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 338.000 Person th in 1973 and a record low of 270.000 Person th in 2011. United Kingdom Population: Wales: Female: Aged <16 data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office for National Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.G002: Population: England and Wales.
The population of England was estimated to have reached almost 57.7 million in 2023, compared with 53.9 million ten years earlier in 2013. Compared with 1971, the population of England has grown by over ten million.