Population growth in England and Wales has slowed to its lowest rate since the Covid-19 pandemic, figures show. The overall population was an estimated 62.0 million in mid-2025, up by 224,900 – or 0.4% – from 61.8 million in mid-2024, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is the lowest rate of increase since mid-2020 and follows steeper jumps of 1.4% in 2023 and 1.0% in 2024.
The slowdown is largely due to a sharp fall in net migration to the UK, which dropped from 612,500 in the previous 12 months to 211,700 in the year to mid-2025. There has also been a slight fall in natural change – the difference between births and deaths. There were 588,000 births (the lowest since mid-1978) and 568,400 deaths (lowest since mid-2019), giving a natural increase of just 19,600.
One in four local areas see population decline
Around one in four local areas (78 out of 318) saw a fall in their population in the year to mid-2025, compared with around one in 20 during the previous 12 months (19 of 318). Some of the largest cities in England and Wales saw estimated population falls, including Leeds (down 0.3%), Birmingham (down 0.5%), Swansea (down 0.5%), Leicester (down 0.9%) and Nottingham (down 1.5%). Both Liverpool and Manchester fell slightly, by nearly 0.1%.
In London, more than two-thirds of local authorities (23 out of 33) saw a drop, the largest being Camden (down 1.8%), Westminster (down 1.5%) and Southwark (down 1.5%). Camden and Westminster had the biggest percentage falls of any area in England and Wales except for the Isles of Scilly, which saw a drop of 3.5%.
Wales and London see first declines in years
The population of Wales dropped for the first time in a decade, falling to an estimated 3,175,181 from 3,177,949 in mid-2024. London’s population decreased by 0.3% – the first fall since the year to mid-2021 – due to net outward migration to other parts of the UK outweighing both natural increase and international migration.
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. London saw the first population decrease since 2021 and the population of Wales fell for the first time in a decade.”
Regional variations and largest increases
North-west England had the highest regional rate of population growth (0.7%), mainly due to international migration and people moving into the region from elsewhere in the UK. Rugby in Warwickshire had the largest increase of any local authority (up 2.4%), followed by Mid Suffolk (2.1%), Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire (2.0%) and South Derbyshire (1.9%).
The ONS noted that six regions – the North West, North East, Yorkshire & the Humber, East Midlands, South East and South West – saw more deaths than births, reflecting “a long-term decline in fertility and an increasing number of deaths because of the growing proportion of older people”.
