Demographics of the United Kingdom
Population pyramid in 2020
Population	67,081,234 (30 June 2020)[1]
Density	270/km2 (700/sq mi) (2020 census)
Growth rate	0.53% (2022 est.)
Birth rate	10.79 per 1,000 (2022)
Death rate	9.07 per 1,000 (2022)
Life expectancy	81.94 years (2022)
• male	79.95 years of age (2022)
• female	84.04 years of age (2022)
Fertility rate	1.61 (2021)
Infant mortality rate	3.82 deaths/1,000 live births (2022)
Net migration rate	3.59 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Age structure
0–14 years	17.6% (2020)
15–64 years	63.9%
65 and over	18.5%
Sex ratio
At birth	1.05 male(s)/female
Under 15	1.05 male(s)/female (2022)
65 and over	0.73 male(s)/female (2022)
Nationality
Nationality	British
Major ethnic	White: 87.17% White British/Irish: 82.8% (2011)
Minor ethnic	Asian British: (6.3%) Black British: (3.0%) British Mixed: (2.0%) Other: (0.9%)
Language
Spoken	British English
Sources:[2]

The population of the United Kingdom was estimated at over 67.0 million in 2020. It is the 21st most populated country in the world and has a population density of 270 people per square kilometre (700 people/sq mi), with England having significantly greater density than Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.^[3] Almost a third of the population lives in south east England, which is predominantly urban and suburban, with about 9 million in the capital city, London, whose population density is just over 5,200 per square kilometre (13,468 per sq mi).^[4]

The population of the UK has undergone demographic transition—that is, the transition from a (typically) pre-industrial population, with high birth and mortality rates and slow population growth, through a stage of falling mortality and faster rates of population growth, to a stage of low birth and mortality rates with, again, lower rates of growth. This growth through 'natural change' has been accompanied in the past two decades by growth through net immigration into the United Kingdom, which since 1999 has exceeded natural change.^[5]

The United Kingdom's high literacy rate (99% at age 15 and above)^[6] is attributable to universal state education, introduced at the primary level in 1870 (Scotland 1872, free 1890^[7]) and at the secondary level in 1900. Parents are obliged to have their children educated from the ages of 5 to 16 years. In England, 16-17 year olds should remain in education, employment or training (for example, in the form of A-Levels, vocational training, and apprenticeships), until the age of 18.^[8]

The United Kingdom's population is predominantly White British (81.88% at the 2011 Census), but due to migration from Commonwealth nations, Britain has become ethnically diverse. The second and third largest non-white racial groups are Asian British at 7% of the population, followed by Black British people at 3%.

The main language of the country is British English. Some Celtic languages, namely Scottish Gaelic and Irish, are still spoken by minorities in Scotland and Northern Ireland, respectively, and Cornish has been revived to a limited degree in Cornwall; but the predominant language in all these areas is English. Welsh is widely spoken as a first language in parts of North and West Wales, and to lesser extent in South East Wales, where English is the dominant first language.^{[citation needed]}

History

Before the census, 200–1800

Roman Britain had an estimated population between 2.8 million and 3 million at the end of the second century AD. At the end of the fourth century, it had an estimated population of 3.6 million, of whom 125,000 consisted of the Roman army and their families and dependents.^[9] The urban population of Roman Britain was about 240,000 people at the end of the fourth century.^[9] Roman Britain's capital city, Londinium, is estimated to have had a population of about 60,000.^[10][11]

Following the Roman withdrawal from Britain, Germanic tribes from continental Europe such as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes began a period of significant migration to the southeastern part of the island, notably bringing their language, Old English.^[12] Nevertheless, the overall population is believed to have fallen precipitously due to political upheavals and plagues.^[13][14] By the time of the compilation of the Domesday Book in the eleventh century, there may have between 1.25 and 2 million people living in England.^[15] Though the Domesday Book did not count the English population, it has been regarded as one of the first attempts to produce a census of the country.^[16]

Between the years of 1086 and 1750, the English population fluctuated in size due to civil war, famines and plagues.^[5] By the end of the 13th century, the population was estimated to have reached between four and six million people, but a combination of factors such as widespread famine and disease in the following century collapsed the population dramatically. An agricultural crisis in 1315 to 1322 and the Black Death in 1348 to 1350 collapsed the population by over a third of its pre-existing number, and the growth rate.^[5] By 1377, the population was estimated on a poll-tax of all people aged 14 and over, depending on the population amount of those under 14, to be around 2.2 million to 3.1 million.^[5]

Periods of instability over the 15th century such as the War of the Roses caused the population to, while grow, increase at a slowed pace.^[5] The general factors behind the slow increase was a high mortality rate due to war, less marriages within the population and late marriages, keeping fertility levels lower than they should have been for the time and a net emigration of English people out of the country.^[5] However, in contrast to the preceding century, by the 16th century, this situation has elevated itself due to political stability under the Tudor monarchy and little civil unrest which would have resulted in a higher mortality rate.^[5] While this was overturned with the English Civil War in 17th century, it allowed the population to grow at a faster pace, causing the population of England to reach a pre-collapse total of 5.74 million by 1750.^[5] In Scotland, population growth was not to the same extent as it was in England, which resulted in being significantly lower in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, which is often ascribed to similar factors halting it such as a high mortality rate, especially for infants, and later marriage and childbearing patterns.^[5] Ireland on the other hand before the 19th century consistently had rapid population growth, which has been ascribed to higher fertility rates and earlier marriage than England. Furthermore, the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century also affected the population total of Scotland with an estimated 100,000 Scots migrating to Ulster, additionally, the Jacobite rebellion in 1745 also caused significant emigration.^[5] The estimated population total of Scotland in 1691 was 1.23 million.^[5]

The impetus to collect population data was reinforced due to food supply concerns and war against France in the late 18th century and the beginning of the early 19th century.^[5] In 1800, the Census Act was passed, authorising the first modern census in British history to be conducted.^[5]

Census established and the demographic transition, 1800 – 2000

The first Census in 1801 revealed that the population of Great Britain was 10.5 million.^[17] Of this, England's population had grown to 8.3 million, Wales population rested at 0.6 million while Scotland had a population of 1.6 million.^[5] In Ireland, the population rested at an estimate of between 4.5 and 5.5 million inhabitants.^[18][19] Since 1801, a census has been conducted every decade, in Ireland this was conducted for the first time in 1821.^[5]

During the Industrial Revolution, the demographic transition started to occur within the United Kingdom, going from a pre-industrial society demographically to one of an industrialised society. By 1841 Census, the population of England and Wales rested at 15.9 million,^[5][20] doubling in the space of 40 years, for Ireland 8.2 million^[5][20][21] and for Scotland 2.6 million.^[5][20] This slowed rate of growth for Scotland may be attributed to higher net emigration of Scottish people out of the nation, and two typhus epidemics in 1837 and 1847.^[5]

Factors often associated with the beginning of the demographic transition began to change dramatically as well, which contributed to the rapid increase. For example, Child mortality decreased dramatically, the proportion of children born in London who died before the age of five decreased from 74.5 per thousand in 1730–1749 to 31.8 per thousand in 1810–1829.^[22] General mortality was thought to have declined as well, especially after 1850 as well as an increased birth rate caused the English population to sustain itself in the second phase of the transition from 1750 to 1870.^[5]

Due to this, in the second half of the 19th century the population of England continued to grow quickly from 16.8 million in 1851 to 30.5 million in 1901.^[5] This rapid growth was also seen in the other constituent nations. In Wales, the population increased from 0.6 million in 1801 to 2 million in 1901, in Scotland, the population increased from 1.6 million to 4.5 million in 1901. In contrast however and due to the Great Irish Famine, which began in the 1840s, caused the deaths of 1 million Irish people, and caused well over a million to emigrate.^[5][23] Mass emigration became entrenched as a result of the famine, and Ireland's population decreased rapidly, from 8.2 million in 1841 to 3.2 million in 1901.^[5][24] However this massive population collapse did not effect Northern Ireland to the same extent, due to being more industrialised and urbanised and while the population did decline, it had recovered itself by the beginning of the 20th century.^[5] This prolonged period of emigration and net population decline in Irish history was only reversed by the middle of the 20th century.^[24]

By the 1870s, the total fertility rate of the UK population declined from 4.88 children per woman in 1871, to 2.4 by 1921, representing a transition to the third stage of the demographic transition.^[5] Traditional means of birth control were used such as abstinence and withdrawal facilitated the collapse of the birth rate,^[5] this was also hastened by the 1930s by more modern methods of contraception which were beginning to be used with increased acceptance.^[5] From 1840 to 1930 there was a net emigration of English people out of the country which resulted in the population being stunted in the capacity it could have grown to.^[5]

During the first half of the 20th century, the United Kingdom began to approach the 4th stage of the demographic transition.^[5] The end of the First World War and the loss of lives of troops, coupled with an influenza outbreak is estimated to have caused the death of upwards of 900,000 people in the United Kingdom.^[5] This as a consequence shrunk the male population of the Lost Generation and altered the sex ratio, which slowed the growth rate of the population down.^[5] By the end of the Second World War, this transition had been completed and the society had a low but fluctuating birth rate, a low death rate and a slowed growth rate of the population.^[5] In 1948, the British Nationality Act was signed which allowed the access of the peoples of the British Empire's colonies to migrate to the country being classed in nationality as the same as a native of the United Kingdom. This law, while an unintentional side-effect, led to the start of modern immigration to the United Kingdom.

The move into the 4th stage also took place during major social change in the United Kingdom throughout the 1960s.^[5] Liberalisation of society during the decade led to the 1967 Abortion Act which legalised abortion in the United Kingdom for the first time, and the 1969 Divorce Reform Act, which liberalised the circumstances under which someone can get a divorce.^[5] Between these years, the population fluctuated; from the 1950s onwards the population increased through natural growth but by the time of the mid-1970s the population decreased due to emigration, which took net migration to a negative, and deaths exceeding births.^[5] For the first time in 1973, the birth rate of the country fell below replacement level, due to the previous liberalising acts.^[25] By the 1980s, the decline of population growth had recovered to an extent due to a reversal of net emigration.^[5]

In the 1990s, international migration began to contribute more proportionally to population growth,^[5] and by 1998 this had passed natural increase as the main provider of growth.^[5] Liberalisation of immigration rules under the new government allowed rapid increase of the number of migrants arriving, quadrupling the number from a net migration rate of 50,000 a year, to 200,000 a year.^[26]

Modern century, 2000–present

By the beginning of the 21st century, the population of the United Kingdom rested at a total of 59,113,000 people. In each constituent nation, the population of England was 49,449,700, Scotland had a population of 5,064,200, Wales had a population of 2,910,200 and Northern Ireland a population of 1,689,300.^[5] Increased international migration which began to rapidly increase at the end of the 20th century also has brought increased ethnic heterogenization to the British population, not only in ethnicity and race, but also in country of birth. In 2001, the White British population was registered to be 88.52% of the total population, but by 2011, this proportion of the population had dropped to 81.88%, with other ethnic groups either rising by 50% of their respective total population in 2001 or doubling entirely.

Such rapid immigration growth boosted population growth in the United Kingdom. In 2011, the population sat at around 63 million people.

Population

The population of the UK in the last recorded census in 2011 was 63 million, of whom 31 million were male and 32 million female. The 2011 census recorded the population of England as 53.0 million, Scotland as 5.3 million, Wales as 3.1 million, and Northern Ireland as 1.8 million.^[27] At the last recorded population estimate, it was estimated that the UK population was at a total of 67,081,234 people.

There are 13 urban areas that exceed 500,000 inhabitants: they are centred on London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds and Bradford, Southampton and Portsmouth, Sheffield, Liverpool, Leicester, Manchester, Belfast, Bristol, Newcastle upon Tyne and Nottingham.^[28]

According to the World Population Review,^[29] in 2019 there was:

• One birth every 39 seconds
• One death every 52 seconds
• A net gain of one person every minute
• One net immigrant every 3 minutes

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues.

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues.

^{[fn 1]}

Population by constituent country

• Population across constituent countries over time
• 

  England

• 

  Scotland

• 

  Wales

• 

  Northern Ireland

Population change over time

The following table shows the total UK population estimated at census dates. Pre 1901 figures include the whole of Ireland, whereas from 1901 onwards only the population of Northern Ireland is included.

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