With about 69.5 million inhabitants in mid-2025, the United Kingdom is the third most populous country in Western Europe after Germany and France. Its population has grown almost without interruption over the last two centuries and, in the last twenty years, above all thanks to immigration, which has made the country one of the most multicultural societies on the continent.
How many and where they live
The population is very unevenly distributed. England, with almost 59 million people, has a density of over 450 per square kilometre, one of the highest in Europe, while Scotland, with 5.5 million on a territory almost two thirds the size of England, has about 70, and the Highlands are among the emptiest areas of the continent. Wales has 3.2 million people and Northern Ireland 1.9 million. More than eight Britons in ten live in urban areas; Greater London exceeds 9 million inhabitants, followed by the Birmingham and Manchester conurbations with about three million each.
Births, ageing and migration
In the year to mid-2025 the population grew by about 228,000, 0.33%, the slowest growth since 1998 outside the Covid years. Births, 652,400, were the fewest in at least 43 years and exceeded deaths by barely 5,000: fertility has fallen to about 1.4 children per woman in England and Wales and even lower in Scotland, levels similar to Italy's. The median age is 40.9, with marked differences: 40.6 in England and Northern Ireland, over 43 in Scotland and Wales, where the population is older and in 2025 fell slightly.
Almost all growth therefore comes from immigration. Net migration, which had reached a record of about 944,000 in the year to March 2023, when arrivals of health and care workers, students, Ukrainians and Hong Kong citizens coincided, then collapsed because of visa restrictions introduced by Conservative and Labour governments: about 223,000 in the year to mid-2025 and 171,000 in calendar 2025. See immigration after Brexit.
A multicultural society
The UK has been a land of immigration for centuries: French Huguenots, Eastern European Jews, Irish and Italians in the 19th and 20th centuries; after the Second World War the Windrush generation from the Caribbean and millions of people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Africa; from 2004 citizens of the new EU member states, especially Poles and Romanians. At the 2021 census, about one resident in six in England and Wales had been born abroad; the most common countries of birth were India, Poland, Pakistan, Romania and Ireland, and about 270,000 people had been born in Italy (see Italians in the UK).
- Ethnicity (England and Wales, 2021): White 81.7%, Asian 9.3%, Black 4%, Mixed 2.9%, Other 2.1%. In London White British people are just over a third of the population, and in cities such as Birmingham and Leicester fewer than half of residents describe themselves as White.
- Religion: for the first time, in 2021 fewer than half of the people of England and Wales described themselves as Christian (46.2%); 37.2% said they had no religion, 6.5% were Muslim, 1.7% Hindu, 0.9% Sikh and 0.5% Jewish.
The big cities
London is by far the largest city, followed by Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Sheffield, Manchester, Bradford, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Bristol. See British cities.
Trends
Official projections suggest the population will keep growing slowly, sustained by immigration, passing 72 million around 2032, while the number of people aged 85 and over will rise rapidly, putting heavy pressure on the health service, social care and pensions. Already there are about 285 people of pensionable age for every thousand of working age. See also the UK in figures, languages and quality of life.