United Kingdom People - 2024

Population

68,138,484 (2023 est.) United Kingdom

constituent countries by percentage of total population:
England 84.3%
Scotland 8.2%
Wales 4.6%
Northern Ireland 2.8%

Nationality

noun: Briton(s), British (collective plural)

adjective: British

Ethnic groups

White 87.2%, Black/African/Caribbean/black British 3%, Asian/Asian British: Indian 2.3%, Asian/Asian British: Pakistani 1.9%, mixed 2%, other 3.7% (2011 est.)

Languages

English

note: the following are recognized regional languages: Scots (about 30% of the population of Scotland), Scottish Gaelic (about 60,000 speakers in Scotland), Welsh (about 20% of the population of Wales), Irish (about 10% of the population of Northern Ireland), Cornish (some 2,000 to 3,000 people in Cornwall) (2012 est.)

Religions

Christian (includes Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist) 59.5%, Muslim 4.4%, Hindu 1.3%, other 2%, unspecified 7.2%, none 25.7% (2011 est.)

Age structure

0-14 years: 16.91% (male 5,901,611/female 5,620,070)

15-64 years: 64.03% (male 21,997,962/female 21,628,742)

65 years and over: 19.06% (2023 est.) (male 5,953,187/female 7,036,912)

2023 population pyramid:

Dependency ratios

total dependency ratio: 57.7

youth dependency ratio: 27.8

elderly dependency ratio: 29.8

potential support ratio: 3.4 (2021 est.)

Median age

total: 40.6 years (2023 est.)

male: 39.9 years

female: 41.4 years

Population growth rate

0.49% (2023 est.)

Birth rate

10.8 births/1,000 population (2023 est.)

Death rate

9.1 deaths/1,000 population (2023 est.)

Net migration rate

3.2 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2023 est.)

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

Urbanization

urban population: 84.6% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 0.8% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

Major urban areas - population

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 (2023)

Sex ratio

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 (2023 est.)

Mother's mean age at first birth

29 years (2018 est.)

note: data represents England and Wales only

Maternal mortality ratio

10 deaths/100,000 live births (2020 est.)

Infant mortality rate

total: 3.8 deaths/1,000 live births (2023 est.)

male: 4.3 deaths/1,000 live births

female: 3.3 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 82.1 years (2023 est.)

male: 80 years

female: 84.2 years

Total fertility rate

1.63 children born/woman (2023 est.)

Gross reproduction rate

0.79 (2023 est.)

Contraceptive prevalence rate

76.1% (2010/12)

note: percent of women aged 16-49

Drinking water source

improved: urban: 100% of population

rural: 100% of population

total: 100% of population

unimproved: urban: 0% of population

rural: 0% of population

total: 0% of population (2020 est.)

Current health expenditure

12% of GDP (2020)

Physicians density

3 physicians/1,000 population (2020)

Hospital bed density

2.5 beds/1,000 population (2019)

Sanitation facility access

improved: urban: 99.8% of population

rural: 99.8% of population

total: 99.8% of population

unimproved: urban: 0.2% of population

rural: 0.2% of population

total: 0.2% of population (2020 est.)

Major infectious diseases

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% (2016)

Alcohol consumption per capita

total: 9.8 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

beer: 3.53 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

wine: 3.3 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

spirits: 2.35 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

other alcohols: 0.61 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)

Tobacco use

total: 15.4% (2020 est.)

male: 17.3% (2020 est.)

female: 13.5% (2020 est.)

Children under the age of 5 years underweight

N/A

Currently married women (ages 15-49)

50.7% (2023 est.)

Child marriage

women married by age 18: 0.1% (2020 est.)

Education expenditures

5.5% of GDP (2020 est.)

Literacy

total population: NA

male: NA

female: NA

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)

total: 17 years

male: 17 years

female: 18 years (2020)