The population of the UK according to preliminary forecasts of experts by 2025 will reach 25 million people. Despite the active emigration from developing countries, which fell on the years 1981-2001, population growth during this time amounted to only 6%. The UK has one of the highest population densities in the world, with 242 people per square kilometer.
The birth rate in the UK is 1.3% and the death rate is 10.3%. The average life expectancy for men in the UK is about 75 years, for women - about 81 years. In 2000, the female population in the UK exceeded the male population by 838,000.
According to experts, the UK population has a serious problem - aging. Thus, in 2002, people over the age of 65 accounted for almost 16% of the total population of the country. According to the 2001 census, it turned out that the number of people over 60 years of age exceeds the number of children under the age of 15.
Great Britain has a very high degree of urbanization of the population. At the end of the 20th century, the population of Great Britain living in cities amounted to about 90% ofthe total number of inhabitants. The largest cities in terms of the number of inhabitants are London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Sheffield and others. Also, according to statistics, about half of all UK residents live in cities with a population 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. People from these countries account for about 7% of the total UK population. As for the indigenous people, the largest part of them are the British (about 81%). Other indigenous peoples living in the UK are the Scots (about 9%), the Irish (about 2%) and the Welsh (just under 2%).
The British people speak 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.
Religiously, the UK is largely a Protestant country. The Anglican Church, which has the status of a state church in England, has about 34 million followers. In Scotland the most important role is played by the Presbyterian Church, whose followers are 800 thousand people. There are also about 6 million Catholics in the country. In addition, there are quite a few groupsadherents 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 people.
The political structure of Great Britain implies the right to vote for every citizen of the state and other countries that are members of the Commonwe alth, as well as Northern Ireland, regardless of national origin.
