Derry population

83,652people · latest estimate

Photo: Michael Parry, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

By James Burfield, SEO consultant, Bath · Page updated 18 September 2026 · GeoNames

Derry has a population of 83,652, making it the 2nd largest place in Derry City and Strabane.

of 12 in Derry City and Strabane

The other populations of Derry

The same name covers more than one area, and each has its own figure.

What you mean	Population	Source
The place itself The populated settlement, roughly the built-up core.	83,652	GeoNames
The agglomeration The continuous urban area, including places that have grown into it.	93,499	World Gazetteer (2005)

Why these differ: which population figure is right? · compare with another place

Year-by-year official estimates for the wider area: Derry City and Strabane population trends, 2001–2024.

Derry is one of the UK's 76 official cities, ranked 50 of 76 by population.

Derry in context

0 km

south to Londonderry County Borough, the nearest larger town

182,042

people live within 10 km

#131

largest of 6,358 UK places

Distances are straight-line from the settlement's recorded coordinates. The 10 km figure sums the recorded places within that radius, so it describes how built-up the surroundings are rather than people per square kilometre.

The population, measured on a real boundary

What you mean	Population	Source
Derry City settlement NISRA's settlement boundary: the built-up Derry	84,884	Census 2021
Derry (GeoNames record) the figure in this page's heading; boundary unstated	83,652	GeoNames

The census figure is NISRA's Census 2021 count of usual residents inside the settlement's development limit: a boundary drawn in 2014–15 holding 2021 people, so growth at the edges since then sits outside it. 35,554 households. Where the rows disagree, quote the census. Northern Ireland's other layers wait on data that is either licensed (postcodes) or published only at district level (crime), and those absences are deliberate.

Common questions

What is the population of Derry?

The populated place itself holds 83,652 residents. The wider Derry City and Strabane council area recorded 152,383 in 2024. Each figure describes a different boundary and all are correct; the meanings table on this page says which is which, because a population without its boundary is not an answer.

Go deeper

Population since 2001

Derry City and Strabane, year by year from ONS estimates

Nearby in Derry City and Strabane

#	Place	Population
1	Londonderry County Borough	87,153
2	Strabane	14,198
3	Eglinton	3,818
4	Culmore	3,645
5	New Buildings	3,381

All 12 places in Derry City and Strabane →