- Population growth in England and Wales has slowed to its lowest rate since the Covid-19 pandemic, with the total population estimated at 62.0 million in mid-2025, a 0.4 per cent increase from mid-2024, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
- The slowdown is largely due to the ongoing fall in net migration to the UK, coupled with a slight reduction in natural change.
- Wales’ population dropped for the first time in a decade, while the total for London fell slightly due to more people moving out of the capital to live elsewhere.
- Approximately one in four local areas recorded a population decrease in the year to mid-2025. Birmingham, Leeds, Swansea and Leicester all saw their estimates population fall between mid-2024 and mid-2025.
- Nigel Henretty, head of population statistics at the ONS, said: “Migration has been the main driver of population change in England and Wales for the past quarter of a century. While that has continued to be the case, the recent fall in migration has led to the smallest population growth since the height of the pandemic.”
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