Dorset population, 2001–2025
Dorset has an estimated population of 391,036 (mid-2025), up 12.8% since 2001. Official ONS mid-year estimates for the Dorset local authority area. The newest year is provisional: when ONS published mid-2025 it revised the mid-2024 figure for 348 of the 361 UK authorities, so read the last point on any of these charts as the current best estimate rather than a settled number.
Year by year
| Year | Population | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 391,036 | +0.4% |
| 2024 | 389,341 | +0.9% |
| 2023 | 385,934 | +0.7% |
| 2022 | 383,191 | +0.5% |
| 2021 | 381,245 | +0.9% |
| 2020 | 377,670 | -0.0% |
| 2019 | 377,699 | +0.6% |
| 2018 | 375,604 | +0.2% |
| 2017 | 374,675 | +0.6% |
| 2016 | 372,416 | +0.5% |
| 2015 | 370,728 | +0.6% |
| 2014 | 368,694 | +0.3% |
| 2013 | 367,651 | +0.3% |
| 2012 | 366,572 | +0.2% |
| 2011 | 365,897 | +0.4% |
| 2010 | 364,317 | +0.2% |
| 2009 | 363,567 | -0.1% |
| 2008 | 364,085 | +0.3% |
| 2007 | 363,069 | +0.9% |
| 2006 | 359,806 | +0.6% |
| 2005 | 357,679 | +0.7% |
| 2004 | 355,305 | +0.5% |
| 2003 | 353,367 | +0.8% |
| 2002 | 350,487 | +1.1% |
| 2001 | 346,596 | — |
Food businesses
Dorset has 311 takeaways, 942 restaurants and cafés and 424 pubs and bars on the FSA's statutory register (as of July 2026) — 0.33 takeaways per restaurant against an English average of 0.49, and 8.0 takeaways per 10,000 residents. How that compares across England.
High street businesses
Dorset has 230 hairdressers and beauty salons, 290 pubs and bars, 215 licensed restaurants, 215 takeaways on the ONS business register (2025). Compare across the UK.
Rounded to the nearest 5, which is how ONS protects individual businesses from being identified.