According to preliminary expert forecasts, the UK population will reach 25 million people by 2025. Despite the active emigration from developing countries in 1981-2001, population growth during this time was only 6%. The UK has one of the highest population densities in the world , which is 242 people per square kilometer.
The birth rate in the UK is 1.3% and the mortality rate is 10.3%. The average life expectancy of men in the UK is about 75 years, women - about 81 years. In 2000, the UK exceeded the male population by 838 thousand.
According to experts, the UK population has a serious problem - aging. So, in 2002, people over the age of 65 made up almost 16% of the total population of the country. According to the census in 2001, it turned out that the number of people over 60 years old exceeds the number of children under the age of 15 years.
Great Britain has a very high degree of urbanization. At the end of the 20th century, the British population living in cities made up about 90% of the total population. The largest cities in terms of population are London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Sheffield and others. Also, according to statistics, about half of all UK residents live in cities with populations exceeding 100 thousand people.
Great Britain, whose population is very multinational, in the second half of the 20th century received a large flow of emigrants from India, Pakistan, the Caribbean, and later from African states: Uganda, Kenya, Malawi. Immigrants from these countries account for about 7% of the total UK population. As for the indigenous people, the majority of them are English (about 81%). Other indigenous peoples living in the UK are Scots (about 9%), Irish (about 2%) and Welsh (slightly less than 2%).
The UK population speaks English. In addition, part of the population of Wales speaks Welsh, part of the inhabitants of Scotland - Gaelic, and the population of the Channel Islands - French.
As for the religious sphere, the UK is for the most part a Protestant country. The Anglican Church, which has the status of a state in England, has about 34 million followers. In Scotland, the Presbyterian Church plays an important role, with 800 thousand followers. Also in the country there are about 6 million Catholics. In addition, there are quite large groups of adherents of Methodism, Baptism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism. The number of adherents of Islam is growing very rapidly, the number of which in 2002 was 1.5 million.
The political system of Great Britain implies the existence of the right to vote for every citizen of the state and other countries belonging to the Commonwealth, as well as Northern Ireland, regardless of national origin.