Demographics & population — United Kingdom
Population size, age structure, migration, ethnicity, language, education, and health indicators.
Profile updated 2026-06-02
⚡ Demographics & population at a glance
Population size, age structure, migration, ethnicity, language, education, and health indicators. Key figure for United Kingdom: 68,459,055
Immigration rules and fees change frequently — confirm current requirements on official government or embassy websites.
Population overview
- Population
68,459,055
- Population Growth Rate
0.45%
- Population Distribution
the core of the population lies in and around London, with significant clusters found in central Britain around Manchester and Liverpool, in the Scottish lowlands between Edinburgh and Glasgow, southern Wales in and around Cardiff, and far eastern Northern Ireland centered on Belfast
- Urban Population
- urban population: 84.6%
- of total population rate of urbanization: 0.8% annual rate of change
- Population in Major Urban Areas
9.648 million LONDON (capital), 2.791 million Manchester, 2.665 million Birmingham, 1.929 million West Yorkshire, 1.698 million Glasgow, 952,000 Southampton/Portsmouth
- Population: Male/Female
- male: 34,005,445
- female: 34,453,610
Age & family
- Age Structure
- years: 16.7% (male 5,872,937/female 5,592,665) 15-64
- years: 63.9% (male 22,062,643/female 21,702,401) 65
- years and over: 19.3% (male 6,069,865/female 7,158,544)
- Median Age
- total: 40.8
- years male: 40.1
- years female: 41.5 years
- Birth Rate - births/1,000 population
11
- Death Rate - deaths/1,000 population
9.2
- Total Fertility Rate - children born/woman
1.63
- Gross reproduction rate
1
- Child Marriage
50.7
- Contraceptive Prevalance Rate - female 12-49
76.1%
- Contraceptive Prevalence Rate - female 12-49
76.1%
- Currently married women (ages 15-49)
50.7%
- Mean Age for Mother's First Birth (age 25-49)
29
- Mother's mean age at first birth
29
- Sex Ratio at Birth - male/female
- at birth: 1.05
- male(s)/female 0-14 years: 1.05
- male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.02
- male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.85
- male(s)/female total population: 0.99 male(s)/female
Migration
- Net Migration Rate - migrant(s)/1,000 population
2.9
Ethnicity & language
- Ethnic Groups
- Asian/Asian British: Indian 2.3%,
- Asian/Asian British: Pakistani 1.9%, mixed 2%, other 3.7%
- Language Note
English
- Nationality Noun
- noun: Briton(s),
- British (collective plural) adjective: British
Education
- Education Expenditures - percent of GDP
5.5%
- Total School Life Expectancy - (primary to tertiary)
- total: 17
- years male: 17
- years female: 18 years
Health & living conditions
- Life Expectancy at Birth
- total population: 82.2
- years male: 80.1
- years female: 84.4 years
- Infant Mortality Rate
- total: 3.8 deaths/1,000
- live births male: 4.2 deaths/1,000
- live births female: 3.3 deaths/1,000 live births
- Infant Mortality Rate - total deaths/1,000 live births
- total: 3.8 deaths/1,000
- live births male: 4.2 deaths/1,000
- live births female: 3.3 deaths/1,000 live births
- Maternal Mortality Rate - deaths/100,000 live births
10
- Physicians Density - physicians/1,000 population
2.77
- Hospital Bed Density - beds/1,000 population
2.5
- Health Expenditures - percent of GDP
12%
- Major Infectious Diseases - degree of risk
- note: on 31 August 2023, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an updated Travel Alert for polio in Europe
- the United Kingdom is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV)
- vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus
- this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine
- the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series
- before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine
- Obesity - adult prevalence rate
27.8%
- Tobacco Use
- total: 15.4%
- male: 17.3%
- female: 13.5%
- Alcohol consumption per capita
- total: 9.8
- liters of pure alcohol beer: 3.53
- liters of pure alcohol wine: 3.3
- liters of pure alcohol spirits: 2.35
- liters of pure alcohol other alcohols: 0.61 liters of pure alcohol
- Drinking Water Source - percent of urban population improved
- urban: 100%
- of population rural: 100%
- of population total: 100%
- urban: 0%
- of population rural: 0%
- of population total: 0% of population
- Sanitation Facility Access - percent of urban population improved
- urban: 99.8%
- of population rural: 99.8%
- of population total: 99.8%
- urban: 0.2%
- of population rural: 0.2%
- of population total: 0.2% of population