section_path: Demographics
section_name: Demographics
paragraph_text: Demographics
  
  In the 2021 census the population of the United Kingdom was 67,026,292. It is the fourth-largest in Europe (after Russia, Germany and France), the fifth-largest in the Commonwealth of Nations and the 22nd-largest in the world. In 2012 and 2013 births contributed the most to population growth, while in 2014 and 2015 net international migration contributed more. Between 2001 and 2011 the population increased at an average annual rate of 0.7 per cent. The 2011 census also showed that, over the previous 100 years, the proportion of the population aged 0–14 fell from 31 to 18 per cent, and the proportion of people aged 65 and over rose from 5 to 16 per cent. In 2018 the median age of the UK population was 41.7 years.
  
  England's population in 2021 was 56 million, representing some 84 per cent of the UK total. It is one of the most-densely-populated countries in the world, with 434 people per square kilometre in mid-2021, with a particular concentration in London and the south-east. London's wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million in 2024. The 2021 census put Scotland's population at 5.48 million, Wales at 3.1 million and Northern Ireland at 1.9 million.
  
  In 2021 the total fertility rate across the UK was 1.53 children born per woman. While a rising birth rate is contributing to population growth, it remains considerably below the baby boom peak of 2.95 children per woman in 1964, or the high of 6.02 children born per woman in 1815, below the replacement rate of 2.1, but higher than the 2001 record low of 1.63. In 2011, 47.3 per cent of births in the UK were to unmarried women. The Office for National Statistics reported in 2015 that amongst the UK population aged 16 and over, 1.7 per cent identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual (2.0 per cent of males and 1.5 per cent of females); 4.5 per cent of respondents responded with "other", "I don't know", or did not respond. The number of transgender people in the UK was estimated to be between 65,000 and 300,000 by research between 2001 and 2008.