Demographics

Main article: Demography of the United Kingdom

A census is taken simultaneously in all parts of the UK every ten years.^[267] The Office for National Statistics is responsible for collecting data for England and Wales, the General Register Office for Scotland and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency each being responsible for censuses in their respective countries.^[268] In the 2011 census the total population of the United Kingdom was 63,181,775.^[269] It is the third largest in the European Union, the fifth largest in the Commonwealth and the twenty-first largest in the world. 2010 was the third successive year in which natural change contributed more to population growth than net long-term international migration.^[270][270] Between 2001 and 2011 the population increased by an average annual rate of approximately 0.7 per cent.^[269] This compares to 0.3 per cent per year in the period 1991 to 2001 and 0.2 per cent in the decade 1981 to 1991.^[270] The 2011 census also confirmed that the proportion of the population aged 0–14 has nearly halved (31 per cent in 1911 compared to 18 in 2011) and the proportion of older people aged 65 and over has more than trebled (from 5 to 16 per cent).^[269] It has been estimated that the number of people aged 100 or over will rise steeply to reach over 626,000 by 2080.^[271]

England's population in 2011 was found to be 53 million.^[272] It is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with 383 people resident per square kilometre in mid-2003,^[273] with a particular concentration in London and the south-east.^[274] The 2011 census put Scotland's population at 5.3 million,^[275] Wales at 3.06 million and Northern Ireland at 1.81 million.^[272] In percentage terms England has had the fastest growing population of any country of the UK in the period from 2001 to 2011, with an increase of 7.9%.

In 2009 the average total fertility rate (TFR) across the UK was 1.94 children per woman.^[276] While a rising birth rate is contributing to current population growth, it remains considerably below the 'baby boom' peak of 2.95 children per woman in 1964,^[277] below the replacement rate of 2.1, but higher than the 2001 record low of 1.63.^[276] In 2010, Scotland had the lowest TFR at only 1.75, followed by Wales at 1.98, England at 2.00, and Northern Ireland at 2.06.^[278] In 2011, 47.3% of births in the UK were to unmarried women.^[279] A government figure estimated that there are 3.6 million homosexual people in Britain comprising 6 per cent of the population.^[280]