Section 1: Country Information

The Union Jack: Flag of the United Kingdom

Country Map:

Figure 1: Map of United Kingdom (Data Sources: ESRI)

Top 5 Most Populous Urban Areas in the UK and their respective estimated populations:

  1. London: 8,661,381
  2. Manchester: 2,632,914
  3. Birmingham (West Midlands): 2,515,879
  4. West Yorkshire: 1,827,948
  5. Glasgow: 1,643,621
    (United Nations, 2018)

Figure 2: Bar Graph of Top 5 Most Populous Urban Areas in the UK (United Nations, 2018)

Comparison of Urban and Rural Areas:

United Kingdom Urban Areas Rural Areas
Population 56,495,180 11,390,830
% of Total Population 83.2% 16.8%
Average Population Density (pop/km2) 1,597.21 55.00

(Brownbill and Dutton, 2019; Coates et al., 2019)

Table 1: UK Urban and Rural Population Density

Climatic or geophysical features of the landscape that help explain the location of London,

the largest and capital city:

London is the UK’s most populous and capital city. Archaeological evidence has revealed that the Romans shifted Britain’s provincial capital from Colchester to London after during the reconstruction period following the Roman defeat of Boudicca in 61 AD (Keys, 2020). London was a strategic choice for a capital city because it was the nearest point to the sea that the river Thames could be bridged and this bridge (the London Bridge) has enabled this city to continue to be an important port in the world.

This is further facilitated by how seagoing ships could reach London and unload their freight, but they could not do so in Colchester - the previous capital (Keys, 2020). Additionally, London’s topography makes the land very suitable for urban expansion. More specifically, London is not hilly given that the city was built in a gentle river valley, which facilitates the slow stretching of the urban sprawl to slowly stretch outwards (Rosehill, 2017).

Section 2: Demography

Median age:

40.5 (United Nations, 2019)

Percent of population that is ‘working age’ (18-64):

58.24% (United Nations, 2019)

Age-Sex Pyramid of Population:

Figure 3: Age-Sex Pyramid of the UK (United Nations, 2019)

Noticeable discontinuities or “jumps” in the age structure of your population and possible historical events that can account for these discontinuities:

As evident in the Age-Sex Pyramid (Figure 3), the population aged between 70-74 is distinctively larger than the population of the population aged 75-79. Whereas the people in the age group of 70 - 74 account for 5% of the total population, people in the neighboring age groups of people 75-79 only make up 3.6% of the population (United Nations, 2019). In other words, there is a jump in the population between 70-74 year olds and 75-79 year olds. This jump could likely be attributed to the end of the Second World War (WWII) in 1945. In the years after WWII, a greater degree of stability was restored in the UK, which likely made residents more willing to have children than during wartime (Office of National Statistics, 2011). As such, there is a noticeable increase in the population of 70 - 74 year olds from the population of 75-79 year olds today.

Similarly, the population aged 50-59 is significantly larger than the population of neighboring age groups. People aged 50-54 and 55-49 account for 12.9% and 6.7% of the total population respectively. In contrast, people aged 45-49 and 60-64 account for 5.7% and 6.3% respectively. The discontinuity in population growth observed is most likely due to the baby boom in the 1960s. According to Tinker and Young (2017), a record-high of 8.3 million babies were born in the UK during the 1960s. These individuals born during the baby boom now make up this noticeably larger population of 50-59 year olds.

UK Crude Mortality Rate in relation to its neighbors to the north and south:

From 2015-2020, the Crude Death Rate of the United Kingdom is 9.4 deaths per 1,000 population. It is the highest among its neighboring countries to the south of the UK is France, with a Crude Death Rate of 9.3 deaths per 1000 population, and to its north is Iceland with a Crude Death Rate of 6.7 deaths per 1000 population (United Nations, 2019).

UK Crude Fertility Rate in relation to its neighbors to the north and south:

From 2015-2020, the Crude Birth Rate of the United Kingdom is 11.5 births per 1,000 population. It’s the second lowest among its neighboring countries, only higher than France (to the south of the UK), which has a Crude Birth Rate of 11.2 births per 1000 population. To the north of the UK is Iceland, which has a Crude Birth Rate of 12.1 births per 1000 population (United Nations, 2019).

Country’s life expectancy at birth for males and for females:

  • Males Life Expectancy (estimated based for 2015-2020): 79.37 years
  • Females (estimated for 2015-2020): 82.90 years
    (United Nations, 2019)

Apparent trend in life expectancy and infant mortality over the last 20 years in UK:

Figure 4: Life Expectancy of the UK (constructed based on World Bank, n.d.)

Generally, the life expectancy of the UK has been slowly increasing over the last two decades. There were two peaks, respectively in the years 2011 and 2014. As evident in Figure 4, the life expectancy of males is lower than that of females (World Bank, n.d.).

Country’s infant mortality rate:

4 infant deaths per 1,000 live births (United Nations, 2019)

Figure 5: Infant Mortality Rate of the UK (constructed based on World Bank, n.d.)

The infant mortality rate has generally been steadily decreasing over the past 20 years. As seen in Figure 5, infant mortality rate has always been lower for female infants than male infants (World Bank, n.d.).

Section 3: Cultural-Linguistic Information

Top three languages (by # of speakers) spoken in the United Kingdom:

  1. English (English or Welsh if in Wales): 49,808,000 (92.3% of the population)
  2. Polish: 546,000 (1%)
  3. Punjabi: 273,000 (0.5%)
    (Evans, 2013; Stokes, 2013)

Geographic distribution of major language speakers:

The most recent UK Census revealed that the main language of only 4,000,000 UK residents is not English (Stokes, 2013). These residents reside in various regions of the country (Evans, 2013). As depicted in Figure 7, residents whose main language is Polish make up almost 2% of London residents aged three and above, which is the highest proportion recorded in the 2011 UK Census (Stokes, 2013). The third most spoken main language is Punjabi and Punjabi-speakers make up almost 1.5% of West Midlands (i.e. Birmingham) residents.

Figure 7: Geographic Distribution of other language speakers in UK (Stokes, 2013)

Section 4: Economic Information

Five largest industries (in terms of number of workers):

  1. Wholesale & retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles: 4,999,000
  2. Human health & social work activities: 4,491,000
  3. Professional scientific & technical activities: 3,205,000
  4. Education: 2,970,000
  5. Administrative & support service activities: 2,868,000
    (Caldwell, 2020)

Figure 8: Five largest industries in UK by number of workers (Caldwell, 2020)

Food Production: Internal versus Imported

According to the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (2016), the UK is 76% self-sufficient based on its food production to supply ratio. In other words, the UK is 76% self-sufficient in home-grown food and only relies on food imports for 24% of its food supply, which is made up of products that cannot be grown in the UK due to the nation’s climate. In 2018, the top partner countries and regions from which the United Kingdom imported food products included France, Netherlands, Germany, Ireland and Italy (The World Integrated Trade Solution, 2018).

Rate of unemployment among 20-30 year olds:

Given that most available sources on unemployment rates study unemployment rates by age groups of 16 - 24 and 25 - 64, which corresponds to youth and adult working ages, we were unable to find the rate of unemployment among 20-30 year olds. However, our exploration of extant literature revealed that the youth unemployment rate (i.e. age 16-24) was 14.6% in the third quarter (July - Sept) of 2020. This rate increased from the previous quarter’s rate of 12.9% and could likely be attributed to the COVID-19 global pandemic, which has displaced many workers in light of economic conditions (Powell, 2020). The UK House of Parliament reported that the mean rate of unemployment among people aged 16-24 in 2019 was 11.9% (Powell, 2020). In contrast, the adult rate of unemployment in 2019 was much lower at 3.4% (Trust for London, n.d.).

Median Adult Income:

£28,400 = U.S. $37,857 in the financial year ending in 2018 (O’Neill, 2019)

Section 5: Education

Percent of those aged 25+ who have attained higher education qualifications:

11% of the aged 25+ population in UK graduated from some college / university (Higher Education Student Statistics, 2018)

Years of schooling among adults aged 25+:

12.8 years (United Nations Development Programme, 2013)

Median cost of yearly tuition at a college / university (in local currency and as percent of median adult income):

  • Mean cost of yearly tuition at university: £6,000 = US$7,760 (Kentish, 2017)
    • Note: Available sources only provided mean costs, not median
  • Mean annual tuition as a percent of median adult income: 21.1% (Kentish, 2017; O’Neill, 2019)

where Median Adult Income = US$37,857

UK Country Report completed by Claire Chua, Xinyue Hu, Kathering Montelon
UCLA SOC SC 402: Quantitative Research Methods
Fall 2020