Explore Britain

People

Although the United Kingdom is quite small in terms of land area (242,000sq km), it has a population of about 59 million, ranking 17th in the world. The population density is about 242 inhabitants per sq km, which is well above the European Union average of about 117 per sq km.

England has 376 people per sq km, Scotland has 66, Wales 140 and Northern Ireland 122. Most people in the UK live in towns or cities, although the greater part of the projected population increase up to the year 2011 is expected to occur in non-urban areas.

English is the official language, but many people know more than one language. Around 20% of people in Wales speak Welsh and children learn it in Welsh schools. About 70,000 people in Scotland speak Gaelic. For centuries people from overseas have settled in the United Kingdom to escape persecution or in search of a better standard of living, they have brought with them languages, cultures and religions. The most widely spoken minority languages today are from the Asian sub-continent, but other languages include Italian, Spanish, Greek, Turkish and Chinese. Ethnic minority communities make up about 5.5% of total population.

There were 725,800 live births in the United Kingdom in 1997, or 12.9 live births per 1,000 population. The death rate is slightly lower at just under 11 per 1,000. In common with most countries in western Europe, the UK has an ageing population: in 1961 about 12 % of the population were aged 65 and over but by 1996 this had increased to 16 %. In contrast, the population under 16 years of age fell from 25% in 1961 to 21% in1996. The ethnic minority population has a younger age structure than the white population. There is a ratio of about 104 females to every 100 males in the population as a whole.

 

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