Demography of the United Kingdom

The population of the United Kingdom is considered an example of a population which has undergone the 'demographic transition' - that is, the transition from a (typically) pre-industrial population with high birth and mortality rates and only slow population growth, through a stage of falling mortality and faster rates of population growth, to a stage of low birth and mortality rates with, again, lower rates of population growth. This population growth through 'natural change' has been accompanied in the past two decades by growth through net international migration into the UK.

According to the 2011 census, the total population of the United Kingdom was around 63,182,000. It is the third-largest in the European Union (behind Germany and France) and the 22nd-largest in the world. Its overall population density is one of the highest in the world at 259 people per square kilometre, due to the particularly high population density in England. Almost one-third of the population lives in England's southeast, which is predominantly urban and suburban, with about 8 million in the capital city of London, the population density of which is just over 5,200 per square kilometre.