London was by far the largest urban agglomeration in the United Kingdom in 2023, with an estimated population of 9.65 million people, more than three times as large as Manchester, the UK’s second-biggest urban agglomeration. The agglomerations of Birmingham and Leeds / Bradford had the third and fourth-largest populations respectively, while the biggest city in Scotland, Glasgow, was the fifth largest. Largest cities in Europe Two cities in Europe had larger urban areas than London, with the Russian capital Moscow having a population of almost 12.7 million. The city of Paris, located just over 200 miles away from London, was the second-largest city in Europe, with a population of more than 11.2 million people. Paris was followed by London in terms of population-size, and then by the Spanish cities of Madrid and Barcelona, at 6.75 million and 5.68 million people respectively. Russia's second-biggest city; St. Petersburg had a population of 5.56 million, followed by Rome at 4.3 million, and Berlin at 3.5 million. London’s population growth Throughout the 1980s, the population of London fluctuated from a high of 6.81 million people in 1981 to a low of 6.73 million inhabitants in 1988. During the 1990s, the population of London increased once again, growing from 6.8 million at the start of the decade to 7.15 million by 1999. London's population has continued to grow since the turn of the century, reaching a peak of 8.96 million people in 2019, and is forecast to reach 9.8 million by 2043.

The data collected for the paper UK Smart Cities Present and Future: An Analysis of British smart Cities Through Current and Emerging Technologies and Practices.

United Kingdom UK: Urban Land Area data was reported at 58,698.750 sq km in 2010. This stayed constant from the previous number of 58,698.750 sq km for 2000. United Kingdom UK: Urban Land Area data is updated yearly, averaging 58,698.750 sq km from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2010, with 3 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 58,698.750 sq km in 2010 and a record low of 58,698.750 sq km in 2010. United Kingdom UK: Urban Land Area 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: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Urban land area in square kilometers, based on a combination of population counts (persons), settlement points, and the presence of Nighttime Lights. Areas are defined as urban where contiguous lighted cells from the Nighttime Lights or approximated urban extents based on buffered settlement points for which the total population is greater than 5,000 persons.; ; Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)/Columbia University. 2013. Urban-Rural Population and Land Area Estimates Version 2. Palisades, NY: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/set/lecz-urban-rural-population-land-area-estimates-v2.; Sum;

The degree of urbanization in the United Kingdom amounted to 84.64 percent in 2023. This shows almost a three percentage point increase over the past decade. The upward trend, though slow, has been consistently positive. What is urbanization? The rate of urbanization indicates the shift away from rural living as people come together in densely populated cities. The United Kingdom is much more urban than the worldwide average. This puts people in closer proximity to jobs, health care, stores, and social opportunities, leading to better economic, health, and social outcomes. For example, areas with higher urbanization have a higher average life expectancy at birth. The darker side of urbanization London is the United Kingdom’s largest city and arguably the financial capital of Europe. However, this economic success has led to increasingly high rental prices, which is an indication of the high cost of living in the city. The higher population density can also lead in an increase in crime. London has one of the highest homicide rates in England and Wales. In spite of these drawbacks, London continues to draw millions of overseas tourists every year.

Urban population (% of total population) in United Kingdom was reported at 84.64 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. United Kingdom - Urban population (% of total) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on June of 2025.

The Urban Atlas is providing pan-European comparable land use and land cover data for Large Urban Zones with more than 100.000 inhabitants as defined by the Urban Audit. Urban Atlas' mission is to provide high-resolution hotspot mapping of changes in urban spaces and indicators for users such as city governments, the European Environment Agency (EEA) and European Commission departments.

Urban planners and landscape architects play a pivotal role in managing the growth of urban areas. The industry thrives on strategic planning for efficient land use, creating sustainable environments and contributing to infrastructure development initiatives. Significant investments from the private and public sectors and continuous urbanisation have powered demand for urban planners and landscape architects. However, economic hardship has been detrimental to performance, with periods of severe inflation and high interest rates weakening downstream activity and investment in projects. Despite this, interest rates have been falling since 2024-25, boosting demand from downstream markets in the last two years. Revenue is expected to grow by 2% to £864.5 million over the five years through 2025-26, including a projected 0.1% rise in the current year. More people are moving to urban areas, with the UK’s urban population growing as a share of the total population. The strain on urban infrastructure requires continuous improvements and expansions to be made. This fuels demand for urban planners and landscape architects as they find ways to develop and design land use, focusing on community needs and sustainability. Heavy government investment in various housing and infrastructure projects has boosted construction activity, supporting demand. The economic downturn from the COVID-19 outbreak subdued business confidence, disrupting projects and denting construction activity to the detriment of the industry. As restrictions eased, the industry saw a glimmer of hope with a rebound in project development. Still, economic challenges since 2022-23, including soaring inflation and geopolitical uncertainty, have hampered recovery. The volatile economic climate and subdued business confidence have constrained project investment, which has constrained profit and rising costs amid inflation. Improving economic conditions combined with government initiatives will fuel industry growth. The increasing emphasis on sustainable and environmental design will shape future demand, requiring professionals to pick up new skills. Technology adoption will provide growth opportunities, with advanced software solutions boosting operations, enhancing efficiency and reducing costs. There will also be an escalated focus on local cultures and community needs, with the 100 new towns being considered for building during the current Labour parliamentary term, bringing inclusivity and communal cohesion to the fore. Revenue is forecast to swell at a compound annual rate of 1.6% to £933.7 million over the five years through 2030-31.

This dataset contains output datasets from the OpenCLIM_UrbanFlood Workflow. These runs were part of the NERC funded OpenCLIM (Open CLimate IMpacts modelling framework) project. This data can be used for the continued analysis of climate impacts and for comparison with future studies.

The data has been generated using the OpenCLIM_UrbanFlood workflow available on DAFNI (https://www.dafni.ac.uk/) and focuses on the cities of Newcastle, Norwich, Bath, Inverness and Swansea. The workflow was run for five cities across GB to analyse changes in flood risk for a large range of urban and climate futures. The workflow uses output datasets from the Urban Development Model (described below) to generate future urban landscapes.

A second model transformed the population density data into new urban form maps including building footprints. Passed through the 2-D hydrodynamic model CityCAT, a range of future storm events with varying intensities were modelled to capture changes in flow and water depths across the domain. Damages incurred as a result of flood waters were calculated and aggregated to the 1km grid level along with the number of commercial and residential buildings affected. The code for each model in the workflow is available within the OpenCLIM GitHub repository (linked in Related Documents).

The Urban Development Model (Newcastle University) presents plausible realisations of future urban change. These are initiated from the 2017 Ordnance Survey urban-rural land use ('UDMbaseline') and projected into the future using attractors and constraints based on the UK's Shared Socio-ecconomic Pathways (SSPs).

Urban design strategy document for the Sunderland central area

European City Statistics (Urban Audit) provides reliable and comparable information on European cities, with more than 100 variables across a range of themes.

United Kingdom UK: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data was reported at 19.234 % in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 19.203 % for 2016. United Kingdom UK: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data is updated yearly, averaging 18.336 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 19.939 % in 1960 and a record low of 17.256 % in 1973. United Kingdom UK: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban 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. Population in largest city is the percentage of a country's urban population living in that country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; Weighted Average;

A pilot-scale research project between the UK and Taiwan funded jointly under ESRC and NSTC (ES/W000172/1), exploring how green spaces can support neighbourhoods in adapting to extreme hot weather under a changing climate. Pilot workshops with residents were held in two cities: Glasgow (Scotland, UK) and Taipei (Taiwan). The project demonstrated a methodology for engaging residents on the links between green spaces and reducing heat risk, and illustrated the breadth of benefits that green spaces can provide to residents' wellbeing and resilience.

The project develops a network of UK and Taiwan-based researchers capable of understanding the lived experience of climate change at the neighbourhood level, and of how citizens may experience the climate risk reduction benefits provided by green spaces in their neighbourhood. Globally, there is increasing interest within environmental politics and human geography scholarship in the role that institutions working at the sub-national level - such as city governments - can play in responding to the climate challenge. This is supported by an upswell of interest in 'nature-based solutions' (responses to social and environmental challenges through the management of natural spaces) across the social and natural sciences. Yet urban planners and third sector organisations are becoming more interested in the neighbourhood as the scale at which people experience climate change - and our responses to it - in their daily lives. Nevertheless, there remains a need for more concrete evidence on how climate impacts and responses play out at the sub-national level; and in the urban studies literature in particular it is increasingly recognised that subtropical Asian cities are under-represented in the climate risk reduction and governance literature.

The proposed research responds to these challenges by evaluating how neighbourhoods in two cities taking climate and resilience leadership outside of formal UN channels - Glasgow, Scotland; and Taipei, Taiwan - experience risks from climate change and feel the benefits of city-led nature-based resilience strategies. Given its policy relevance in each city, excess urban heat is taken as a focal point to assess in more depth one climate risk which may be mitigated via urban greening. At the core of the project is pilot-scale research centered on a small number of neighbourhoods in each city, which understands residents' and decision-makers' narrative experiences of climate change and urban greenspace, evaluates planning and urban development histories, and uses publicly-available data to quantitatively assess inequality in access to heat risk reduction benefits from green spaces across the city. The aim of this pilot research is to develop and exemplify a methodology for understanding the interface between lived experience, climate risk and greenspace across different urban contexts, to build credibility among the UK-Taiwan team ahead of further larger-scale research collaboration.

Indeed, a key aim of the project is to lay the foundations for subsequent transdisciplinary research encompassing not only social scientists and natural scientists, but also stakeholders from local government, planning consultancies, NGOs and community organisations in both Glasgow and Taipei. To this end, academic workshops and international transdisciplinary dialogues will be held in both Glasgow and Taipei (or virtually depending on the COVID situation) to (a) create a broader network of social- and natural science academics to engage in follow-on research; and (b) pro-actively engage stakeholders in both Glasgow and Taipei in city-to-city learning and in the co-creation of research questions and knowledge needs for subsequent larger-scale projects.

The research is jointly led by Dr Leslie Mabon (environmental sociology) and Dr Wan-Yu Shih (urban planning), who will facilitate wider buy-in and impact through their links in each city. In Glasgow, Mabon can draw on academic contacts through his position in the Young Academy of Scotland, and stakeholder links via his continued collaboration with Glasgow City Council and Climate Ready Clyde. In Taipei, Shih can draw in academics via her role in Future Earth Taipei, and stakeholders via her close association with the Classic Landscape and Planning Company, who will support the stakeholder engagement elements of the project.

In 2023, the urban population of the United Kingdom was approximately 57.6 million, while the rural population was around 10.5 million.

United Kingdom UK: Urban Land Area Where Elevation is Below 5 Meters: % of Total Land Area data was reported at 1.195 % in 2010. This stayed constant from the previous number of 1.195 % for 2000. United Kingdom UK: Urban Land Area Where Elevation is Below 5 Meters: % of Total Land Area data is updated yearly, averaging 1.195 % from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2010, with 3 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1.195 % in 2010 and a record low of 1.195 % in 2010. United Kingdom UK: Urban Land Area Where Elevation is Below 5 Meters: % of Total Land Area 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: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Urban land area below 5m is the percentage of total land where the urban land elevation is 5 meters or less.; ; Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)/Columbia University. 2013. Urban-Rural Population and Land Area Estimates Version 2. Palisades, NY: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/set/lecz-urban-rural-population-land-area-estimates-v2.; Weighted Average;

Population in the largest city (% of urban population) in United Kingdom was reported at 16.7 % in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. United Kingdom - Population in the largest city - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on June of 2025.

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Urban Planning Software Market Size 2024-2028

The Urban Planning Software Market size is estimated to grow by USD 4.05 billion at a CAGR of 7.81% between 2023 and 2028. Infrastructure development is a priority area for many governments and organizations worldwide, driven by increasing investments and a growing focus on building smart cities. This trend is fueled by several factors, including the expanding middle-class population and the need for efficient, modern infrastructure to support economic growth and improve quality of life. Infrastructure projects encompass various sectors, such as transportation, energy, water supply, and telecommunications, and require significant capital investment and advanced technology. As a result, the infrastructure industry is poised for continued growth and innovation, offering opportunities for businesses and investors alike.

What will be the size of the Market During the Forecast Period?

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Market Dynamics

The market is witnessing significant growth due to the increasing number of non-residential construction projects and infrastructure development activities in response to the growing urban population. City planners are leveraging technology to efficiently manage and design urban spaces. The market is segmented into components, which include software and services, and segments, such as the cloud-based segment and web-based segment. Government bodies are also investing in urban planning software to optimize budgets and implement smart city technologies. Emerging countries are leveraging technology advancements and cloud software to enhance construction processes and infrastructure development, with a focus on designing residential buildings, roads, bridges, and rail systems, supported by skilled professionals and real estate companies, while government agencies and service companies implement training programs and resource management solutions to optimize engineering and architectural plans. The latest trends include the integration of 5G technology and data centers to enhance the functionality and efficiency of these tools. Open-source software is gaining popularity due to its cost-effectiveness and flexibility. The United Nations (UN) has emphasized the importance of urban planning to address the challenges of urbanization and sustainability. Urban planning software plays a crucial role in this regard, enabling city planners to create harmonious and livable urban spaces. The market is expected to continue its growth trajectory in the coming years, driven by the increasing demand for efficient and technologically advanced urban planning solutions.

Key Market Driver

One of the key factors driving the market growth is the growing middle-class population. The increasing middle-class population in developing countries in APAC, South America, and MEA is expected to significantly contribute to the market growth. In addition, there is an increase in per capita income due to the rapidly increasing economic activities in developing economies such as China, India, Argentina, Indonesia, and South Africa.

Moreover, the rise in the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in these countries is also fuelling the rise in the disposable income of the population. In addition, a majority of the population is opting for long-term investment opportunities due to factors such as rapid industrial, manufacturing, and economic developments in these countries, fuelled by urbanization. As a result, there is an increasing adoption of software for different real-estate projects. Hence, such factors are positively impacting the market which, in turn, will drive the growth during the forecast period.

Significant Market Trend

A key factor shaping the market growth is the use of blockchain technology in software. There is a rapid advancement in technologies that can resolve the challenges associated with the openness of data and procedures in the market. The advent of blockchain technology enables transparency at all levels of activity in urban planning making it effective.

Moreover, the main advantage of using blockchain in urban planning is that there is a reduction in fraud and transaction duplication as every record is encrypted. Furthermore, the implementation of blockchain offers smooth and quick transactions by doing away with the necessity for a middleman. Hence, such factors are positively impacting the market trends which in turn will drive the market growth during the forecast period.

Major Market Challenge

The threat of open-source urban planning software is one of the key challenges hindering growth. There is a growing popularity for open-source software which poses a significant threat to the market. There is an increasing preference for open-source software as it is widely available on the Internet and can be downloaded easily.

Moreover, open-source software

This short article explores a variety of different data for 12 large cities in the UK compared with a selection of other European cities. It is designed to highlight the variety of data on offer through the Urban Audit IV data source and to explore some aspects of the quality of life experienced in these cities. Data for UK cities are published alongside this article.

Source agency: Office for National Statistics

Designation: Official Statistics not designated as National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Urban Audit IV – United Kingdom cities compared with other European cities

This statistic shows the average house prices in rural and urban areas in the United Kingdom (UK) from September 2012 to August 2013. In the 12 months to August 2013, a rural house in Great Britain cost on average 206,423 British pounds (GBP) in comparison with an urban house that cost 182,710 GBP during the same period.

Rural Urban ClassificationThe 2021 RUC is a statistical classification to provide a consistent and standardised method for classifying geographies as rural or urban. This is based on address density, physical settlement form, population size, and Relative Access to Major towns and cities (populations of over 75,000 people). The classification is produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) with advice from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Welsh Government and colleagues from the Government Geography Profession (GGP).This is the 2021 rural-urban classification (RUC) of the 2021 Local Authority Districts in England and Wales. This means that the 2021 RUC methodology has been applied to the 2021 LAD boundaries. LAD classifications are divided into four categories based on their populations:<!--1. Majority Rural: had at least 50% of their population residing in Rural OAs.<!--2. Intermediate Rural: 35-50% rural population<!--3. Intermediate Urban: 20-35% rural population<!--4. Urban: 20% or less of the population live in rural OAs.Each 2021 LAD category is split into one of two Relative Access categories, using the same data as the 2021 Output Area RUC. If more than 50% of a LAD population lives in ‘nearer to a major town or city’ OAs, it is deemed ‘nearer a major town or city’; otherwise, it is classified as ‘further from a major town or city.

Where data is unavailable for Super Output Area geographies, it may be appropriate for users to undertake analysis at the LAD level. At this level, the categorisation works slightly differently in that most areas will include a mix of both rural and urban areas - so the LAD RUC categorisation is a reflection of this. A statistical geography may contain substantial portions of open countryside but still be given an ‘Urban’ classification if the majority of the population within the area live in settlements that are urban in nature. Users should take this into consideration to ensure correct interpretations of any analysis of RUC LAD categories