ONS mid-2025 estimates put England’s population at 58,834,800 after a gain of 227,600 people, while Wales shrank by 2,800 — its first annual decline since 2015.
Wales lost 2,800 people in the year to mid-2025, a fall of 0.1 per cent, making it the first annual population decrease the country has recorded since mid-2015. The figures, published by the Office for National Statistics on 29 July 2026, show England moving in the opposite direction — up by 227,600 people, or 0.4 per cent, to reach 58,834,800.
Combined, England and Wales held an estimated 62.0 million usual residents at the reference date of 30 June 2025, a net gain of 224,900 people, or 0.4 per cent, compared with mid-2024. The ONS described that growth rate as the lowest for England and Wales since mid-2020.
Scotland grew by 2,200 people (0.04 per cent) to 5,545,500 and Northern Ireland by 600 (0.03 per cent) to 1,928,400, according to UK-wide estimates the ONS published on 1 October 2026. That took the UK population to 69,483,900 at mid-2025, up 227,700 (0.3 per cent) on a year earlier — the slowest rate of increase since mid-2020.
The ONS mid-year estimates measure the usual resident population and reflect the combined effect of births, deaths and migration. Across the UK, 886,200 people arrived from abroad and 663,400 left in the year to mid-2025. Arrivals were down from 1,296,500 the year before, while departures rose from 644,800. Births (652,400, the lowest number for at least 43 years) only narrowly exceeded deaths (647,500).
Source: @ONS; Office for National Statistics, Population estimates for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland: mid-2025 (1 October 2026)