Key Findings
- The number of people living in large urban areas has fallen. This marks a change from previous years. In contrast, the populations of rural areas, small towns, and other urban areas have either increased or fallen more slowly than the previous year.
- Every council area has pockets of population growth and decline. Areas which saw the largest proportion of data zones increase in population were mainly rural and island council areas in the year to mid-2021. Population growth in these areas was substantially higher than the growth observed in the previous year.
Other geographies
Population estimates for other areas which are built up from the 2011 Data Zones are available from the other geographies page.
Interactive tools
You can also view:
Time series data
You can view time series data in the NRS web archive.
