Welcome to Population Data UK
On this website you’ll find information about the population and demographics of the UK and other nations.
Our goal is to take census statistics and make them easy to understand.
Scroll down the page to find out more about the nations, cities, counties and islands of the UK.
Latest UK population
The UK is made up of four countries, or nations. They are England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Together, they make up the United Kingdom, which has a total population of 67,081,234.
You can see a breakdown by country in this table. Click on the country names to go to a more detailed article about its population.
| Nation | Population |
|---|---|
| England | 56,550,138 |
| Scotland | 5,466,000 |
| Wales | 3,169,586 |
| Northern Ireland | 1,895,510 |
| United Kingdom (total) | 67,081,234 |
UK Towns and Cities
Most people in the UK live in urban areas – towns, cities or villages. We have an article about the largest cities in the UK.
As well as being the nation’s capital, London is also largest city in the UK – at last count, more than 7.5 million people lived there. Other major cities in the UK are Birmingham, Liverpool and Leeds.
Outside of England, Glasgow and Edinburgh are the largest cities in Scotland. Cardiff is the largest city in Wales, and Belfast is the largest city in Northern Ireland.
This table lists the ten largest towns and cities in the UK. For more article, read our detailed article about the UK’s cities and their populations.
We also have an interesting article about the largest cities in Europe.
Counties
Historically, the UK has been divided into counties, which used to be the local administrative divisions, particularly in England and Scotland (where they were also known as shires).
Today, there are are 48 ceremonial counties in England, often but not always, aligned with councils. You can see the population of the largest counties in England in this table. For more information, including a full table of the population and size (area) of each county, take a look at our detailed article about England’s counties.
We’re building out the counties section of our site, so please bear with us – we know there are gaps.
We’ve also recently added an article about the counties of Ireland.
| County | Population |
|---|---|
| Yorkshire | 5,218,838 |
| Lancashire | 4,942,364 |
| Middlesex | 4,000,927 |
| Essex | 2,999,248 |
| Surrey | 2,975,836 |
| Kent | 2,747,715 |
| Staffordshire | 2,159,392 |
| Hampshire | 2,099,640 |
| Cheshire | 1,668,894 |
| Warwickshire | 1,632,885 |
The British isles
The UK is part of the British isles – along with Ireland (Eire) and the Isle of Man.
The UK makes up all of the island of Britain, and part of the island of Ireland, which is split between Northern Ireland and Ireland (Eire). The Isle of Man is sandwiched between the larger islands of Ireland and Britain.
If you scroll back up to the top of the page, you can see a map of the British Isles.
There are over six thousand islands in total across the British Isles, only 189 of which are large enough to have a permanent population.
We have a series of articles about the population of individual islands that you might like to read.
This table lists the islands with the largest populations, along with their size in kilometres square.
| Island | Population | Area (km2) |
|---|---|---|
| Britain | 60,800,000 | 209,331 |
| Ireland | 6,378,000 | 81,638 |
| Portsea Island | 147,088 | 24 |
| Isle of Wight | 132,731 | 381 |
| Isle of Man | 80,056 | 572 |
| Anglesey | 69,000 | 714 |
| Isle of Sheppey | 37,852 | 94 |
| Canvey Island | 37,479 | 19 |
| Lewis and Harris | 19,918 | 2,179 |
| Mainland (Shetland) | 17,550 | 969 |
Craigavon Population
Ballymena Population 2024
Isle of Mull Population
Wales Population 2023
What is the national animal of England?
