Digital 2021: The United Kingdom
You’ll find our complete #Digital2021 report for the United Kingdom in the SlideShare embed above (click here if that’s not working for you).
This report contains all the latest internet stats, mobile stats, and social media stats for the United Kingdom, but read on below for essential insights into digital use in the United Kingdom in 2021.
The United Kingdom’s population
The United Kingdom had a population of 68.05 million in January 2021.
The United Kingdom’s population increased by 338 thousand (+0.5%) between January 2020 and January 2021.
50.6% of the United Kingdom’s population is female, while 49.4% of its population is male [note: the United Nations does not publish data for genders other than ‘female’ and ‘male’].
84.0% of the United Kingdom’s population lives in urban centres, while 16.0% lives in rural areas.
Internet users in the United Kingdom
There were 65.32 million internet users in the United Kingdom in January 2021.
The number of internet users in the United Kingdom increased by 325 thousand (+0.5%) between 2020 and 2021.
Internet penetration in the United Kingdom stood at 96.0% in January 2021.
Note: we no longer include data sourced from social media platforms in our internet user numbers, so the numbers shown above and in our complete Digital 2021 reports are not comparable with numbers published in our reports from previous years.
Social media statistics for the United Kingdom
There were 53.00 million social media users in the United Kingdom in January 2021.
The number of social media users in the United Kingdom increased by 2.3 million (+4.4%) between 2020 and 2021.
The number of social media users in the United Kingdom was equivalent to 77.9% of the total population in January 2021.
Note: Figures for social media users shown here and in our complete Digital 2021 reports may not equate to unique individuals. We have also included new sources in this year’s social media figures, so numbers shown here and in our Digital 2021 reports will not be comparable with numbers published in our previous reports.
Mobile connections in the United Kingdom
There were 67.61 million mobile connections in the United Kingdom in January 2021.
The number of mobile connections in the United Kingdom decreased by 2.5 million (-3.6%) between January 2020 and January 2021.
The number of mobile connections in the United Kingdom in January 2021 was equivalent to 99.4% of the total population.
Note: many people have more than one mobile connection, so figures for mobile connections may exceed 100% of the total population.
Additional resources
Still need more data? Here are a few suggestions:
Click here to see all of our published reports for the United Kingdom.
Explore all of our reports for countries across Northern Europe.
Click here to browse our complete library of published reports.
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