Population Statistics
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The largest towns in the UK

The biggest places in the United Kingdom without city status. "Town" has no legal definition in the UK — unlike city, which is a status granted by the monarch — so lists like this one disagree depending on how each place is counted. Here is ours, with the counting stated.

How we count. Figures are for the populated place (the settlement), which for some towns covers a wider built-up area — Birkenhead's figure, for example, takes in much of the Wirral's urban footprint. London boroughs are excluded: Croydon is bigger than most entries here, but calling a borough of the capital a "town" stretches the word past use. Details in sources & method.
#TownCountyNationPopulation
1 Birkenhead Metropolitan Borough of Wirral England 325,264
2 Reading Reading England 318,014
3 Northampton West Northamptonshire England 245,899
4 Oldham Borough of Oldham England 237,110
5 Luton Luton England 225,262
6 Swindon Borough of Swindon England 201,669
7 Dudley Dudley England 199,059
8 St Helens St. Helens England 183,200
9 Ipswich Suffolk England 178,835
10 Wigan Borough of Wigan England 175,405
11 Warrington Warrington England 172,330
12 Walsall Walsall England 172,141
13 Mansfield Nottinghamshire England 171,958
14 Slough Slough England 164,793
15 Bournemouth Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council England 163,600
16 Telford Telford and Wrekin England 155,570
17 Poole Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council England 151,500
18 Burnley Lancashire England 149,422
19 Huddersfield Kirklees England 149,017
20 Blackburn Blackburn with Darwen England 146,521
21 Blackpool Blackpool England 145,007
22 Basildon Essex England 144,859
23 Middlesbrough Middlesbrough England 142,707
24 Bolton Borough of Bolton England 141,331
25 Stockport Borough of Stockport England 139,052
26 High Wycombe Buckinghamshire England 133,204
27 Newcastle under Lyme Staffordshire England 127,727
28 Solihull Solihull England 126,577
29 Watford Hertfordshire England 125,707
30 Saint Peters Kent England 125,370
31 Crawley West Sussex England 124,008
32 Burton upon Trent Staffordshire England 122,199
33 Cheltenham Gloucestershire England 118,836
34 Rotherham Rotherham England 117,618
35 Worthing West Sussex England 113,866
36 Chesterfield Derbyshire England 113,057
37 Mendip Somerset England 110,000
38 Sutton Coldfield City and Borough of Birmingham England 109,899
39 Basingstoke Hampshire England 107,642
40 Maidstone Kent England 107,627
41 Bedford Bedford England 106,940
42 Woking Surrey England 103,900
43 West Bromwich Sandwell England 103,112
44 Eastbourne East Sussex England 101,689
45 Gillingham Medway England 101,187
46 Rochdale Borough of Rochdale England 97,550
47 Hemel Hempstead Hertfordshire England 95,961
48 Harlow Essex England 93,300
49 Hastings East Sussex England 92,855
50 High Peak Derbyshire England 92,666
51 Darlington Darlington England 92,363
52 Stevenage Hertfordshire England 91,774
53 Southport Sefton England 91,703
54 Grays Borough of Thurrock England 89,755
55 Harrogate North Yorkshire England 89,060
56 Hartlepool Hartlepool England 88,855
57 Nuneaton Warwickshire England 88,813
58 Redditch Worcestershire England 87,847
59 Londonderry County Borough Derry City and Strabane Northern Ireland 87,153
60 Grimsby North East Lincolnshire England 86,138
61 Cannock Staffordshire England 86,121
62 South Shields South Tyneside England 83,655
63 Weston-super-Mare North Somerset England 82,903
64 Halifax Calderdale England 82,624
65 Tamworth Staffordshire England 81,964
66 Gosport Hampshire England 81,952
67 Scunthorpe North Lincolnshire England 81,576
68 Chatham Medway England 80,596
69 Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees England 79,957
70 Rugby Warwickshire England 78,117
71 Gateshead Gateshead England 77,649
72 Paisley Renfrewshire Scotland 77,270
73 Shrewsbury Shropshire England 76,782
74 Fylde Lancashire England 76,500
75 Crewe Cheshire East England 76,437
76 Bracknell Bracknell Forest England 76,103
77 East Kilbride South Lanarkshire Scotland 75,310
78 Hove Brighton and Hove England 75,174
79 Aylesbury Buckinghamshire England 74,748
80 Guildford Surrey England 71,873
81 Barnsley Barnsley England 71,447
82 Lowestoft Suffolk England 71,327
83 Maidenhead Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead England 70,374
84 Stafford Staffordshire England 70,145
85 Rhondda Rhondda Cynon Taf Wales 69,506
86 Royal Tunbridge Wells Kent England 68,910
87 Corby North Northamptonshire England 68,164
88 Paignton Borough of Torbay England 67,520
89 Rossendale Lancashire England 67,400
90 Washington Sunderland England 67,085
91 Folkestone Kent England 66,429
92 Ellesmere Port Town Cheshire West and Chester England 65,430
93 Torquay Borough of Torbay England 65,388
94 Loughborough Leicestershire England 64,884
95 Taunton Somerset England 64,621
96 Waterlooville Hampshire England 64,350
97 Bognor Regis West Sussex England 63,885
98 Newtownabbey Antrim and Newtownabbey Northern Ireland 63,860
99 Buckley County of Flintshire Wales 63,576
100 Great Yarmouth Norfolk England 63,434

Why isn't Reading a city?

Reading has over 300,000 residents, a university, and an economy larger than many cities — and has applied for city status repeatedly, most recently in 2022, without success. City status is granted by letters patent and there is no qualifying threshold to meet: a place is a city when the Crown says it is. Which is also how St Davids, population 1,751, outranks every place on this page.