Population Statistics
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UK cities by population: all 76 official cities

The United Kingdom has exactly 76 cities: 55 in England, 8 in Scotland, 7 in Wales and 6 in Northern Ireland. City status is a legal grant made by the monarch, not a measure of size — which is how St Davids (population 1,751) is a city and Reading (over 300,000) is not.

76
official cities
7
granted in 2022 (Platinum Jubilee)
1,157,603
largest: Birmingham
1,751
smallest: St Davids
One surprise in this table is deliberate: Greater London is not a city. The legal cities are the City of London (population 8,072) and the City of Westminster — the other 8.9 million Londoners live in neither. Rows marked * use the 2021 census (community) figure because the settlement is below our main source's threshold.
#CityNationPopulation2005
1 Birmingham England 1,157,603 984,333
2 Glasgow Scotland 626,410 610,268
3 Manchester England 568,996 395,515
4 Sheffield England 556,500 447,047
5 Leeds England 536,280 455,123
6 Edinburgh Scotland 514,990 435,791
7 Liverpool England 496,770 468,945
8 Bristol England 479,024 430,713
9 Cardiff Wales 372,089 302,139
10 Leicester England 368,600 339,239
11 Bradford England 366,187 299,310
12 Belfast Northern Ireland 348,005 274,770
13 Coventry England 345,324 308,313
14 Nottingham England 323,632 246,654
15 Kingston upon Hull England 314,018 302,296
16 Preston England 313,332 190,687
17 Swansea Wales 300,352 170,883
18 Newcastle upon Tyne England 300,125 192,382
19 Southend-on-Sea 2022 England 295,310 163,377
20 Brighton and Hove England 283,870 139,001
21 Derby England 270,468 235,029
22 Southampton England 269,781 246,201
23 Wolverhampton England 263,700 252,791
24 Plymouth England 260,203 247,297
25 Stoke-on-Trent England 258,366 260,419
26 Milton Keynes 2022 England 256,385 —
27 Westminster England 247,614 —
28 Portsmouth England 208,100 194,150
29 Aberdeen Scotland 198,590 183,790
30 Sunderland England 170,134 177,965
31 Peterborough England 163,379 140,141
32 Oxford England 162,100 154,566
33 Newport Wales 161,506 117,326
34 York England 156,135 144,202
35 Dundee Scotland 148,210 151,592
36 Cambridge England 145,674 128,488
37 Norwich England 143,135 177,636
38 Gloucester England 132,416 128,721
39 Exeter England 130,709 113,118
40 Colchester 2022 England 130,245 109,414
41 Salford England 129,794 70,905
42 Doncaster 2022 England 113,566 67,670
43 Chelmsford England 111,511 102,671
44 Wakefield England 109,766 78,978
45 Lincoln England 103,813 89,228
46 Worcester England 101,659 100,023
47 Bath England 101,557 93,238
48 Chester England 90,524 81,313
49 St Albans England 84,561 —
50 Derry Northern Ireland 83,652 —
51 Carlisle England 78,470 72,633
52 Lisburn Northern Ireland 77,506 77,506
53 Wrexham 2022 Wales 65,692 43,649
54 Bangor 2022 Northern Ireland 61,011 60,385
55 Hereford England 60,415 58,281
56 Canterbury England 55,087 46,978
57 Dunfermline 2022 Scotland 54,990 38,960
58 Inverness Scotland 47,790 40,755
59 Durham England 47,785 45,696
60 Perth Scotland 47,350 43,633
61 Lancaster England 47,162 47,162
62 Winchester England 46,074 44,094
63 Salisbury England 44,748 45,600
64 Stirling Scotland 37,910 33,012
65 Lichfield England 34,738 28,973
66 Chichester England 31,654 28,222
67 Newry Northern Ireland 27,757 27,757
68 Truro England 23,041 22,044
69 Ely England 20,574 14,265
70 Bangor Wales 18,322 15,449
71 Ripon England 16,363 16,835
72 Armagh Northern Ireland 14,801 14,801
73 Wells England 11,145 10,638
74 City of London England 8,072 —
75 St Asaph Wales 3,485* —
76 St Davids Wales 1,751* —

The smallest cities

St Davids in Pembrokeshire is the UK's smallest city, with 1,751 residents at the 2021 census — city status was restored in 1994 on account of its cathedral. St Asaph (3,485) and the City of London (8,072) come next. By land area the City of London is the smallest of all, at 1.12 square miles.

What makes a city a city?

Nothing about size. City status in the UK is granted by letters patent, historically linked to having a cathedral and now awarded through competitions — most recently for the 2022 Platinum Jubilee, when 7 places were elevated (marked 2022 above). Some of England's biggest places have applied repeatedly and never been granted it: see the largest towns in the UK.