Northern Ireland’s population grew by more than 5% over a decade with almost 100,000 more people now living in the region compared to 2011.
The total number of people living in the north stood at 1,911,000 in mid-2022, while the overall UK population grew to an estimated 67.6 million, up by 4.3 million since 2011.
The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are the most up-to-date snapshot of the UK population.
England saw the biggest percentage increase across the period, with its population jumping by 7.5% – the equivalent of 4 million.
Northern Ireland saw the next highest increase at 5.3%, or an additional 96,225 people, followed by Scotland (2.8% or 147,800 people) and Wales (2.2% or 67,882 people).
The figures show the median average age of people in the UK in the year to June 2022 was 40.7 years, up from 39.6 years in the year to June 2011.
Scotland recorded the oldest median age, at 43.0 years, followed by Wales (42.9), England (40.5) and Northern Ireland (40.0).
Population estimates for Scotland for the years before 2022 have yet to be revised to account for the latest Census, which took place here in March 2022, a year later than in the rest of the UK.
This means there are currently no comparable UK-wide estimates for the period 2012 to 2021 – and is why the new figures are compared with 2011, when the Census took place in all four nations on the same day.
A full set of updated population estimates for the UK will be published after Scotland has revised its data for 2012-21, the ONS said.
The figures for England and Wales were first published in November 2023 and showed the combined population of the two nations grew by an estimated 1% in the 12 months to June 2022, the fastest rate for 60 years.
The increase was driven mostly by international migration, rather than natural change – unlike the baby boom which fuelled the growth in the early 1960s.
The new ONS data released on Tuesday shows sharp differences across the UK in the age structure of the local population.
Just over a third (33.8%) of people estimated to be living in North Norfolk in mid-2022 were aged 65 and over – the highest proportion for this age group anywhere in the UK.
By contrast, just 5.6% of people in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets were 65 and over, the lowest figure anywhere in the UK, followed by the nearby boroughs of Newham (7.3%), Hackney (8.1%) and Southwark (8.6%).
At the other end of the age spectrum, Mid-Ulster had one of the highest proportion of people aged 15 or under in mid-2022 (23.0%), three points behind the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham where the figures is 26.0%.
The data tends to show “higher proportions of younger people in more urban areas and higher proportions of older populations in more rural areas”, the ONS said.
This trend is reflected in the locations with the highest and lowest median age in mid-2022.
