Southsea population

18,514people · latest estimate

Photo: Tim Sheerman-Chase, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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

Southsea has a population of 18,514, making it the 2nd largest place in Portsmouth.

of 3 in Portsmouth

Year-by-year official estimates for the wider area: Portsmouth population trends, 2001–2024.

Southsea in context

2 km

north to Portsmouth, the nearest larger town

428,744

people live within 10 km

#702

largest of 6,358 UK places

781

food businesses in Portsmouth

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 centre of Southsea sits in postcode district PO5.

Council tax

The area Band D council tax for Portsmouth, the billing authority covering Southsea, is £2,292 for 2026–27.

From MHCLG's council tax statistics (Table 9): the area average including police, fire and parish precepts, so it is the council's figure rather than the town's, and your own band depends on your property's 1991 valuation.

Common questions

What is the population of Southsea?

The populated place itself holds 18,514 residents. The wider Portsmouth council area recorded 214,321 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

Portsmouth, year by year from ONS estimates

Postcode district PO5

Wards, constituencies and the deprivation profile

Nearby in Portsmouth

#	Place	Population
1	Portsmouth	208,100
2	Cosham	10,226

All 3 places in Portsmouth →