Population Statistics
Home › UK › Population density map

UK population density map

Where the UK's people actually are: 6,358 towns and cities binned to a grid, shaded by residents per square kilometre. England is the most crowded of the four nations at 450 people per km²; Scotland the emptiest at 71.

By James Burfield, SEO consultant, Bath · Page updated
LondonBirminghamManchesterGlasgowEdinburghNewcastleCardiffBelfastLeedsInverness

People per km² of each grid cell: under 2525–100100–300300–1,0001,000+

Embed this on your site

Free to use anywhere, including commercially. Keep the source link and it stays free. Embed terms.

Click the box to select, then copy.

Density by nation

NationPopulation (mid-2024)Land area (km²)People per km²
England58,620,101130,310450
Wales3,186,58120,737154
Northern Ireland1,927,85514,130136
Scotland5,546,90077,92571
Method. The map bins our 6,358 recorded places (population-weighted points, not census small-area data) into a 84×130 grid; empty cells mean no recorded settlement, not necessarily no people. Nation figures use ONS mid-2024 estimates over standard land areas. Sources & method.

Wondering why other sources give different figures for the same town? See what a built-up area is.

How to read the map

Each square is a grid cell roughly 10 km tall, shaded by how many people live in it per square kilometre. Darker means denser. Nothing is drawn where no settlement is recorded, which is why the coastline appears without any coastline being drawn: the shape of Britain here is made entirely of where people live.

Two things follow from that. The empty stretches of the Highlands, mid-Wales and the Pennines are genuinely empty of towns, not gaps in the data. And the dense band running from Liverpool through Manchester to Leeds shows up as one continuous mass, because at this scale the northern cities and the towns between them have effectively merged.

Cell area is corrected for latitude — a degree of longitude covers less ground in Shetland than in Cornwall — so the shading compares like with like from top to bottom.

Common questions

What is the population density of the UK?
Around 285 people per square kilometre across the whole United Kingdom, but the four nations differ sharply: England 450, Wales 154, Northern Ireland 136 and Scotland 71.
Which part of the UK is most densely populated?
England, at 450 people per km² — more than six times Scotland's 71. Within England, inner London boroughs are denser still by a wide margin.
Why is Scotland's population density so low?
Most of Scotland's land is Highlands and islands with very few settlements, while most of its people live in the central belt between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Averaging a large empty area with a small crowded one produces a low national figure that describes almost nowhere in particular.
Is the UK more densely populated than France?
Yes, substantially. The UK averages around 285 people per km² against roughly 120 for France, which has a similar population spread over more than twice the land area. England alone is denser than the Netherlands.

Explore the numbers behind the map: largest places · official cities · how each area is changing.