This graph shows the resident population projection of elderly people in the United Kingdom from 2020 to 2050, by age group. There is expected to be an overall growth in the number of elderly people. It is expected that all age groups over the age of 60 are expected to increase in number; most substantially, those aged over 80 years.

This statistic shows the distribution of elderly population (aged 65 and over) as a share of population in the United Kingdom (UK) from 1976 to 2046. Over this 70 year period the share of elderly people within the population of the UK is expected to increase by over 10 percent, reaching 24.7 percent of the forecast total population of 2046.

In 2023, there were estimated to be 956,116 people who were aged 35 in the United Kingdom, the most of any age in this year. The two largest age groups during this year were 30-34, and 35 to 39, at 4.7 million and 4.64 million people respectively. There is also a noticeable spike of 693,679 people who were aged 76, which is due to the high number of births that followed in the aftermath of the Second World War. Over one million born in 1964 In post-war Britain, there have only been two years when the number of live births was over one million, in 1947 and in 1964. The number of births recorded in the years between these two years was consistently high as well, with 1955 having the fewest births in this period at 789,000. This meant that until relatively recently, Baby Boomers were the largest generational cohort in the UK. As of 2022, there were approximately 13.76 million Baby Boomers, compared with 14 million in Generation X, 14.48 million Millennials, and 12.9 million members of Gen Z. The youngest generation in the UK, Generation Alpha numbered approximately 7.5 million in the same year. Median age to hit 44.5 years by 2050 The population of the United Kingdom is aging at a substantial rate, with the median age of the population expected to reach 44.5 years by 2050. By comparison, in 1950 the average age in the United Kingdom stood at 34.9 years. This phenomenon is not unique to the United Kingdom, with median age of people worldwide increasing from 23.6 years in 1950 to a forecasted 41.9 years by 2100. As of 2022, the region with the oldest median age in the UK was South West England, at 43.9 years, compared with 35.9 in London, the region with the youngest median age.

This statistic depicts the age distribution of the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2023. In 2023, about 17.41 percent of the population in the United Kingdom fell into the 0-14 year category, 63.35 percent into the 15-64 age group and 19.24 percent were over 65 years of age. The same year, the total UK population amounted to about 67.26 million people.

United Kingdom Population: UK: Aged 60 & Over F & 65 & Over M data was reported at 11,989.322 Person th in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 11,814.085 Person th for 2016. United Kingdom Population: UK: Aged 60 & Over F & 65 & Over M data is updated yearly, averaging 10,605.000 Person th from Jun 1971 (Median) to 2017, with 47 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 14,992.354 Person th in 2014 and a record low of 9,123.000 Person th in 1971. United Kingdom Population: UK: Aged 60 & Over F & 65 & Over M 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.G001: Population.

About this dataset

Context

The dataset tabulates the data for the England, AR population pyramid, which represents the England population distribution across age and gender, using estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates. It lists the male and female population for each age group, along with the total population for those age groups. Higher numbers at the bottom of the table suggest population growth, whereas higher numbers at the top indicate declining birth rates. Furthermore, the dataset can be utilized to understand the youth dependency ratio, old-age dependency ratio, total dependency ratio, and potential support ratio.

Key observations

• Youth dependency ratio, which is the number of children aged 0-14 per 100 persons aged 15-64, for England, AR, is 36.5.
• Old-age dependency ratio, which is the number of persons aged 65 or over per 100 persons aged 15-64, for England, AR, is 25.8.
• Total dependency ratio for England, AR is 62.3.
• Potential support ratio, which is the number of youth (working age population) per elderly, for England, AR is 3.9.

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates.

Age groups:

• Under 5 years
• 5 to 9 years
• 10 to 14 years
• 15 to 19 years
• 20 to 24 years
• 25 to 29 years
• 30 to 34 years
• 35 to 39 years
• 40 to 44 years
• 45 to 49 years
• 50 to 54 years
• 55 to 59 years
• 60 to 64 years
• 65 to 69 years
• 70 to 74 years
• 75 to 79 years
• 80 to 84 years
• 85 years and over

Variables / Data Columns

• Age Group: This column displays the age group for the England population analysis. Total expected values are 18 and are define above in the age groups section.
• Population (Male): The male population in the England for the selected age group is shown in the following column.
• Population (Female): The female population in the England for the selected age group is shown in the following column.
• Total Population: The total population of the England for the selected age group is shown in the following column.

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

Recommended for further research

This dataset is a part of the main dataset for England Population by Age. You can refer the same here

This aggregate-level dataset links poor relief data recorded on 1 January 1891 with several variables from corresponding 1891 census data, all at the level of the registration district (RD). Specifically, the numbers of men and women receiving indoor and outdoor relief in the ‘non-able-bodied’ category (taken as a proxy of the numbers of older-age men and women on relief) are accompanied with a series of socio-economic variables calculated from census data on the population aged 60 years and over (our definition of ‘old age’).

Thus, the dataset fulfils two objectives:

1. To start reconciling poor relief data from the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers archive with transcribed Integrated Census Microdata (I-CeM) available at the UK Data Service (UKDS).

2. To capture geographical variations in the proportion of older-age men and women on poor relief as well as in several household, occupational and migratory compositions recorded in the census, consulting data from 1891 as a pilot study in anticipation of an extended project covering all censuses from 1851-1911.

   The study of old age in history has generally had a narrow focus on welfare needs. Specific studies of the extreme poverty, or pauperism, of older people in late nineteenth-century London by Victorian contemporary Charles Booth (1840-1916) have remained remarkably influential for historical research on old age (Booth, 1894; Boyer and Schmidle, 2009). Old age is also examined through institutional care, particularly workhouse accommodation (Lievers, 2009; Ritch, 2014), while the subgroup of the elderly population that were not poor has been underexplored. However, my PhD thesis shows that pauperism was not a universal experience of old age between 1851 and 1911. Using transcribed census data for five selected counties in England and Wales, I find that pauperism was contingent upon many socio-economic factors recorded in census datasets, such as the occupational structure of older people, their living arrangements and their capacity to voluntarily retire from work based on their savings, land and capital. I find that, in some districts of the northern counties of Cheshire and the Yorkshire West Riding, the proportion of men described in the census as 'retired' and the proportion of women 'living on their own means' was greater than the respective proportions of men and women on welfare. For elderly men in particular, there were regional differences in agrarian work, where those in northern England are more likely to run smallholding 'family farms' whereas, in southern England, elderly men generally participate as agricultural labourers. I find that these differences play an important part in the likelihood of becoming pauperised, and adds to the idea of a north-south divide in old age pauperism (King, 2000). Furthermore, pauperism was predicated on the events and circumstances of people throughout their life histories and approaching their old age.

My fellowship will enable me to expand upon these findings through limited additional research that stresses an examination of the experiences of all older people in England and Wales. Old age has to be assessed more widely in relation to regional and geographical characteristics. In this way, we refine Booth's London-centric focus on the relationship between poverty and old age. My fellowship will achieve these objectives by systematically tracing the diversity of old age experiences. A pilot study will link welfare data recorded on 1 January 1891 from the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers archive with the socio-economic indicators contained in the 1891 census conducted on 5 April, all incorporated at the level of c. 650 registration districts in England and Wales. I will also visit record offices to extract data on the names of older people recorded as receiving welfare in materials related to the New Poor Law, thereby expanding on the PhD's examination of the life histories of older people.

With the key findings from my PhD presented above, I will spend my time addressing a wider audience on my research. As I will argue in blogs and webinars addressed to Age UK, the International Longevity Centre UK and History and Policy, a monolithic narrative of old age as associated with welfare dependency and gradual decline has been constructed since Booth's research in the late nineteenth century. This narrative has remained fixed through the growth of our ageing population, and the development of both old age pensions and the modern welfare state. My research alternatively uses historical censuses that reveal the economic productivity of older people in a manner that is not satisfactorily captured in present day discourse. I will also receive training on how to address my PhD to local schools, through the presentation of maps that present variations in the proportions of older people receiving welfare, and in the application of transcribed census data.

There were over 4.7 million people aged between 30 and 34 in the United Kingdom in 2023, making it the most populous age group in that year. Those aged between 35 and 39 years comprised the next most numerous age group in 2023, at over 4.64 million people. Millennials overtake Boomers as biggest generation Post-war demographic trends, particularly the 'baby boom' phenomenon, have significantly influenced the current age distribution in the UK. The postwar peak of live births in 1947 resulted in the dominance of the Baby Boomer generation for several decades, until 2020 when Millennials became the largest generational cohort, surpassing the Boomers for the first time. The following year, the UK Boomer population was then overtaken by Generation X, the generation born between Boomers and Millennials. Generation Z, however, remains smaller than the three generations that preceded it, at 12.9 million individuals in 2022. Aging UK population poses challenges The median age of the UK population is projected to reach 44.5 years by 2050, compared to 34.9 years in 1950. This aging trend is indicative of broader global demographic shifts, with the median age of people worldwide forecasted to increase from 23.6 years in 1950 to 41.9 years by 2100. How countries like the UK manage their aging populations will be one of the key challenges of the next few decades. It is likely the UK's struggling National Health Service (NHS) will come under even more pressure in the coming years. There are also tough economic questions, in particular as more people enter retirement age and the UK's working population gets smaller in relation to it.

The study used an ethnographic methodological approach, drawing on a number of methods, including 'go-along' tours of the participant's kitchen and accompanied trips to places where food was acquired, eg supermarkets, allotments and lunch clubs. The ways that vulnerability linked to the food system might operate for different groups of older people is not straightforward but a framework for assessing different domains of vulnerability - exposure, threats, coping capacities and outcomes is proposed. Trust is thought to be an integral part of relationship building between actors in the food system and consumers are increasingly being viewed as having an active role in the trust relationship. It is unclear whether and how civil society actors within the food system undertake to build and market trust or whether the mechanisms by which trust operates or is perceived by consumers is different when the commercial sector is not involved. Assessing older people's own views on trust and their experience of different actors at the point that food is acquired is therefore important.

Like the rest of the developing world the UK is experiencing demographic change. There are currently 10.8 million people aged 65 or over in the UK and over 1.4 million are aged 85 or over. The numbers of centenarians has nearly quadrupled since 1981, from 2,600 to over 12,000 in 2010. The number of people aged 60+ is expected to be more than 20 million in the UK by 2031 and the number of individuals aged over 85 years is predicted to double in the next 20 years and nearly treble in the next 30 (Age UK 2013). A significant minority of older people have ongoing health conditions and for those aged over 85 up to two thirds has a disability or limiting long term illness. Two thirds of NHS clients are aged 65 and over (Philip 2007). Such statistics and demographic shifts highlight that addressing when, how and why older people might become vulnerable through the food that they eat should be a research priority in terms of impact on the UK food system, quality of life for individuals, better public health outcomes, reducing the burden of disease and disability not to mention the resultant economic benefits for the UK. Whilst food security and the UK food system itself are relatively secure, the potential for older people to become vulnerable could be strengthened, weakened or influenced by a number of external factors, though no research has explored such factors broadly in relation to the older population. Older people might disproportionately acquire food from different parts of the food supply chain and civil society compared with other groups of the population as they are perhaps more likely to encounter food delivery services marketed directly at them and the health professionals who care for them and through social enterprises serving food, such as 'meals on wheels' and Age UK lunch clubs. We have reviewed the datasets available via the UK Data Service and found none matches the study objectives. New data will therefore be collected and a qualitative approach used. In the first phase of the study the research team will use interviews, photography/photo-elicitation, video observation and other techniques designed to engage participants including the use of diaries with 25 households drawing on a broadly ethnographic approach to investigate the food acquisition practices and perceptions of trust of a range of household types incorporating individuals aged 60+ years. These findings will inform 4-6 focus groups with older people (Phase Two). Finally, a consensus event with stakeholders from across the UK food system will be organised to debate and critique the findings from the first two phases (Phase Three). To maximise public engagement, and ability of a lay audience to more fully participate in the study, we will develop an interactive exhibition. Members of the public, through the Public Involvement in Research group, will be a key part of the approach taken throughout the research.

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 is an individual-level and longitudinal dataset comprising the life histories of men and women aged 60 years and over who were recorded in source materials related to the New Poor Law regime in late-Victorian England. The New Poor Law was responsible for the overall administration of state-funded welfare for the poor, particularly to those who were deemed ‘not-able-bodied’, of which the ‘aged and infirm’ were a substantial subcategory. The majority of those applying for welfare (or what was then termed ‘poor relief’) would receive a weekly allowance paid in one’s household, or ‘outdoor relief’. On average, single applicants could receive between 2-3 shillings weekly, although married couples could receive up to 4 shillings (Lees, 1998).

However, an application for outdoor relief could be rejected by the Board of Guardians, who were responsible for issuing poor relief in their respective Poor Law Union. There were approximately 650 Poor Law Unions in England and Wales, comprising a group of adjacent parishes, and were roughly coterminous with the registration districts used as boundaries when preparing a national census. The Board of Guardians could instead offer ‘indoor relief’, or accommodation and care inside a Poor Law Union workhouse. Historians have found that workhouse populations came to be dominated by older men and women, and the character of the workhouse gradually changed from punitive prison into an institution predominantly providing care for older people (Ritch, 2014; Boyer, 2016; Schurer et al., 2018).

Studies have shown that older men over women were more likely to be offered indoor relief, owing to perceptions about the domesticated nature of women and their more adequate provision of child care at home (Goose, 2005). Others point to variations in age profile, where those in their seventies and eighties were more likely to be offered outdoor relief (Boyer, 2016). Their research has often been conducted without detailed reference to the life histories of actual individuals recorded in the census enumerators’ books (CEBs). Therefore, the objectives of this dataset are:

1. To reconcile the entries of those recorded in the New Poor Law source materials with their appearance in the CEBs.
2. To trace the appearance of these names across censuses to build a more comprehensive picture of the socio-economic profile of older indoor relief and outdoor relief recipients.
3. To investigate differences between older indoor relief and outdoor relief recipients.

To do this, census entries of individuals that appear in the New Poor Law source materials at two periods of their life course are transcribed. The ‘later period’ of their life course involves their circumstances when they were recorded in the census as aged 53-92 years in the periods 1881-1891. Depending on their traceability, they are then traced back to the ‘earlier period’ of their life course, where the individuals were recorded in the census as aged between 21-68 years in the periods 1851-1861. This dataset was used in a paper written by the present author, which focused on an assessment of 489 individuals recorded as living in domestic households that were traceable in both the ‘later period’ 1881-1891 and the ‘earlier period’ 1851-1861. Descriptive and logistic regression techniques measured the likelihood of receiving indoor and outdoor relief via occupational structure, migration, and the extent of relatives in the household (Heritage, 2022). A copy of the paper, presented at the British Society for Population Studies Annual Conference, University of Winchester, 5-7 September 2022, is available on request at HeritageTomS@aol.com Note that when ‘names’ are mentioned, they were only transcribed as part of the initial data collection, and are not released to the UK Data Service. Instead, each individual is distinguished by an anonymized ID code.

The study of old age in history has generally had a narrow focus on welfare needs. Specific studies of the extreme poverty, or pauperism, of older people in late nineteenth-century London by Victorian contemporary Charles Booth (1840-1916) have remained remarkably influential for historical research on old age (Booth, 1894; Boyer and Schmidle, 2009). Old age is also examined through institutional care, particularly workhouse accommodation (Lievers, 2009; Ritch, 2014), while the subgroup of the elderly population that were not poor has been underexplored. However, my PhD thesis shows that pauperism was not a universal experience of old age between 1851 and 1911. Using transcribed census data for five selected counties in England and Wales, I find that pauperism was contingent upon many socio-economic factors recorded in census datasets, such as the occupational structure of older people, their living arrangements and their capacity to voluntarily retire from work based on their savings, land and capital. I find that, in some districts of the northern counties of Cheshire...

Both indicators included have been derived from the published 2019 mid-year population estimates for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. These are sex ratios for people aged 65 years and over and 85 years and over. A sex ratio shows the number of males in the population for every 100 females.

This dataset has been produced by the Ageing Analysis Team for inclusion in a subnational ageing tool, which was published in July 2020. The tool enables users to compare latest and projected measures of ageing for up to four different areas through selection on a map or from a drop-down menu.

Mid-year estimates of resident population for the respective calendar years, based on the 2001 Census by age and sex. The estimated resident population of an area includes all people who usually live there, whatever their nationality. Members of UK and non-UK armed forces stationed in the UK are included and UK forces stationed outside the UK are excluded. Students are taken to be resident at their term time address. To facilitate planning of health services at local level and provide denominators for epidemiological analyses. Legacy unique identifier: P00005

About this dataset

Context

The dataset tabulates the England population distribution across 18 age groups. It lists the population in each age group along with the percentage population relative of the total population for England. The dataset can be utilized to understand the population distribution of England by age. For example, using this dataset, we can identify the largest age group in England.

Key observations

The largest age group in England, AR was for the group of age 55 to 59 years years with a population of 261 (10.16%), according to the ACS 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates. At the same time, the smallest age group in England, AR was the 85 years and over years with a population of 36 (1.40%). Source: U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates

Age groups:

• Under 5 years
• 5 to 9 years
• 10 to 14 years
• 15 to 19 years
• 20 to 24 years
• 25 to 29 years
• 30 to 34 years
• 35 to 39 years
• 40 to 44 years
• 45 to 49 years
• 50 to 54 years
• 55 to 59 years
• 60 to 64 years
• 65 to 69 years
• 70 to 74 years
• 75 to 79 years
• 80 to 84 years
• 85 years and over

Variables / Data Columns

• Age Group: This column displays the age group in consideration
• Population: The population for the specific age group in the England is shown in this column.
• % of Total Population: This column displays the population of each age group as a proportion of England total population. Please note that the sum of all percentages may not equal one due to rounding of values.

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

Recommended for further research

This dataset is a part of the main dataset for England Population by Age. You can refer the same here

United Kingdom Population: Northern Ireland: Male: Aged 60 to 64 data was reported at 49.556 Person th in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 48.283 Person th for 2016. United Kingdom Population: Northern Ireland: Male: Aged 60 to 64 data is updated yearly, averaging 35.000 Person th from Jun 1971 (Median) to 2017, with 47 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 49.556 Person th in 2017 and a record low of 31.000 Person th in 1980. United Kingdom Population: Northern Ireland: Male: Aged 60 to 64 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.G004: Population: Northern Ireland.

In 2023, there were estimated to be around 4.01 million people aged between 30 and 34 living in England, the most of any age group. Those aged 35 to 39 comprised the next highest age group, at 3.95 million, while the age group with the fewest people was among those aged 90 and over.

United Kingdom Population: England: Female: Aged 60 to 64 data was reported at 1,520.031 Person th in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 1,494.368 Person th for 2016. United Kingdom Population: England: Female: Aged 60 to 64 data is updated yearly, averaging 1,335.000 Person th from Jun 1971 (Median) to 2017, with 47 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,610.000 Person th in 2011 and a record low of 1,177.000 Person th in 1996. United Kingdom Population: England: Female: Aged 60 to 64 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.

United Kingdom UK: Population: Male: Ages 55-59: % of Male Population data was reported at 6.398 % in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 6.265 % for 2016. United Kingdom UK: Population: Male: Ages 55-59: % of Male Population data is updated yearly, averaging 5.828 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 6.526 % in 2005 and a record low of 5.208 % in 1992. United Kingdom UK: Population: Male: Ages 55-59: % of Male 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. Male population between the ages 55 to 59 as a percentage of the total male population.; ; World Bank staff estimates based on age/sex distributions of United Nations Population Division's World Population Prospects: 2017 Revision.; ;

United Kingdom UK: Population: Female: Ages 60-64: % of Female Population data was reported at 5.453 % in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 5.399 % for 2016. United Kingdom UK: Population: Female: Ages 60-64: % of Female Population data is updated yearly, averaging 5.547 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 6.055 % in 2010 and a record low of 4.804 % in 1996. United Kingdom UK: Population: Female: Ages 60-64: % of Female Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s UK – Table UK.World Bank: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Female population between the ages 60 to 64 as a percentage of the total female population.; ; World Bank staff estimates based on age/sex distributions of United Nations Population Division's World Population Prospects: 2017 Revision.; ;

Data generated from interviews about Financial Abuse, with 1,025 older people aged 60 or over, in the respondents home between 27th January and 2nd March 2016. The survey asked 50+ questions, of which 29 were used to calculate a prevalence of Financial Abuse against older people.

The sample of older people was representative of the older population by age, gender, location (Council area), and quintile of deprivation. This survey also formed the basis of the "Levels of cold calls and scams of older people in Northern Ireland (December 2016)" report.