United Kingdom Cities Database

We're proud to offer a simple, accurate and up-to-date database of UK cities and towns. We've built it from the ground up using authoritative sources such as the Office for National Statistics (ONS)*, National Records of Scotland (NRS), the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), the US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, and NASA.

  • Up-to-date: Data updated as of 2026-02-05.
  • Comprehensive: Over 16 thousand cities and towns from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
  • Useful fields: From latitude and longitude to age, education, religion and income.
  • Accurate: Aggregated and cleaned from official Census sources.
  • Simple: A single CSV file, concise field names, only one entry per city/town.

Databases

BasicProComprehensive
Commercial useAllowedAllowedAllowed
File formatCSV, ExcelCSV, Excel, SQLCSV, Excel, SQL, SHP, GeoJSON
Places with more than 1,000 peopleYesYesYes
All places regardless of populationNoYesYes
Number of entries5,59516,34416,344
Fields (listed below)Basic fieldsAll fieldsAll fields
GIS/ShapefileNot includedNot includedIncluded
Future updatesNot guaranteedIncluded for 12 monthsIncluded for 24 months
AttributionRequiredNot requiredNot required
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution 4.0Permissive, no redistributionPermissive, no redistribution
Refund policyN/A30-day guarantee30-day guarantee
One-time feeFree$199 (USD)$399 (USD)
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Visualization

Here is a visualization of the data in the paid versions of the database.

Sample Preview

Here is a sample of rows from the database with some commonly-used fields:

All Fields

(scroll down to see all fields)

fieldname description Basic Pro Comp.
city The name of the city/town.
city_ascii city as an ASCII string (diacritics removed for easier matching).
city_alt Alternative names of the city/town, delimited by |.
lat The latitude of the city/town (WGS84).
lng The longitude of the city/town (WGS84).
admin_name The primary administrative region of the city/town. Based on the GENC profile of the ISO 3166-2 standard.
admin_name_ascii admin_name as an ASCII string.
admin_code The ISO 3166-2 code for the administrative division (e.g. GB-LND for City of London).
admin_type The type of administrative division (e.g. metropolitan district, unitary authority, council area, city corporation).
capital Indicates if the city is a capital. primary for London (UK capital), admin for country capitals (Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast).
country_name The constituent country: England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland.
country_code The ISO 3166-2 code for the constituent country (e.g. GB-ENG, GB-SCT, GB-WLS, GB-NIR).
population An estimate of the city's urban population.
population_proper An estimate of the city's municipal population.
density The estimated population per square kilometre.
timezone The city's time zone in the tz database format (Europe/London).
ranking An integer from 1-5 that captures the importance of a city (1 is most important, 5 least important).
same_name TRUE if the place has the same exact name as a more important place in the same admin_name. Many users choose to drop these relatively unimportant places with conflicting names.
london_borough TRUE/FALSE indicating if the city is one of the 32 London boroughs (FALSE for London itself, which is a separate city corporation).
statistical_area The name of the statistical area (built-up area or equivalent) associated with the city.
statistical_id The ONS/NRS identifier for the statistical area.
statistical_type The type of statistical area: built-up-area (England & Wales), metro (aggregated metropolitan area), locality (Scotland), or settlement (Northern Ireland).
statistical_population The population of the statistical area (2021/2022 Census).
id A 10-digit unique id generated by SimpleMaps. It is consistent across releases and databases (e.g. World Cities Database).
age_under_10 The percentage of residents aged 0-9.
age_10_to_19 The percentage of residents aged 10-19.
age_20s The percentage of residents aged 20-29.
age_30s The percentage of residents aged 30-39.
age_40s The percentage of residents aged 40-49.
age_50s The percentage of residents aged 50-59.
age_60s The percentage of residents aged 60-69.
age_70s The percentage of residents aged 70-79.
age_over_80 The percentage of residents aged over 80.
age_20_to_24 The percentage of residents aged 20-24.
age_over_20 The percentage of residents aged 20 and over.
age_over_65 The percentage of residents aged 65 and over.
male The percentage of residents who report being male (e.g. 49.5).
female The percentage of residents who report being female (e.g. 50.5).
education_degree_or_above The percentage of residents aged 16+ with a degree level qualification or above (Level 4+ in England/Wales, SCQF Level 10+ in Scotland).
education_students The percentage of residents who are full-time students.
religion_christian The percentage of residents who identify as Christian (includes Church of Scotland, Roman Catholic, and other Christian denominations).
religion_muslim The percentage of residents who identify as Muslim.
religion_other The percentage of residents who identify with another religion (e.g. Hindu, Sikh, Jewish, Buddhist).
religion_none The percentage of residents who report no religion.
income_high The percentage of residents in higher managerial, administrative and professional occupations (NS-SeC L1-L3).
income_middle The percentage of residents in intermediate, small employer and own account occupations (NS-SeC L4-L11).
income_low The percentage of residents in semi-routine, routine occupations or never worked/long-term unemployed (NS-SeC L12-L14).
households The total number of households in the city/town.
home_ownership The percentage of households that own (rather than rent) their residence.
renter_social The percentage of households that rent from a social landlord (council or housing association).
renter_private The percentage of households that rent from a private landlord.

Frequently Asked Questions

What counts as a city/town?

Any named populated place where people congregate to live and/or work, matched to UK census statistical data. Neighbourhoods within listed cities are not included, with the exception of London boroughs.

Where does your data come from?

City locations come from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and a variety of other public sources. Demographic data comes from official UK census sources: ONS for England & Wales (Census 2021), National Records of Scotland (Census 2022), and NISRA for Northern Ireland (Census 2021). We've made a concerted effort to source our data from public domain and permissively-licensed sources that will not restrict the rights of our customers.

Is the Basic (free) version sufficient for my needs?

The Basic (free) database will meet many users' needs. You may want to purchase the Pro or Comprehensive versions if:

  • You need data for rural villages or places that have fewer than 1,000 residents.
  • You need demographic data such as age, religion, or education.
  • You don't want to (or can't) attribute your use of our data on a public-facing website.

What is the difference between the Pro and Comprehensive versions?

Both Pro and Comprehensive include the same data fields and number of entries (16,344 cities/towns). The key differences are:

  • GIS/Shapefile: Only the Comprehensive version includes GIS shapefiles (compatible with ArcGIS, QGIS, and other GIS software) and boundary polygons in GeoJSON format.
  • Update period: Pro includes 12 months of updates, while Comprehensive includes 24 months.

Am I allowed to redistribute the database if I purchase a paid licence?

A licence allows you to use the database internally or to query the database for public-facing applications that you or your organisation owns or develops. Attribution is not required. You are not allowed to publicly redistribute the database without prior permission. You can make copies of the database for internal and backup purposes. To learn more, read the full licence terms.

Why should I trust this data?

This database was aggregated from authoritative sources and carefully processed by SimpleMaps. We've been developing and selling interactive maps to Fortune 500 companies and prominent international organisations for over 16 years. Over this time, we've learned a lot about geographic data. Our data products have been used in production by well-regarded organisations such as The Guardian. To get a sense of the expertise, check out some of the testimonials from our happy customers.

Does the database include all four UK countries?

Yes. The database includes cities and towns from England (11,646), Scotland (2,471), Wales (1,466) and Northern Ireland (615).

Why do some cities have missing demographic data?

Possible reasons:

  • No census match: The city is in our World Cities Database but couldn't be matched to a census statistical area.
  • New boundaries: Created in 2022 boundary updates but not in the 2021 Census lookup tables.
  • Disclosure control: Census suppresses data for very small areas to protect privacy.

What is the difference between population and population_proper?

population estimates the urban population of a city, which may extend beyond official boundaries. population_proper reflects the population within the city's official municipal boundaries.

How are the income fields calculated?

Income fields are derived from the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SeC), which classifies people by occupation type:

  • income_high: L1-L3 (employers large establishments, higher managerial, higher professional)
  • income_middle: L4-L11 (lower professional through lower technical)
  • income_low: L12-L14 (semi-routine, routine, never worked, long-term unemployed)

If I use the free database, what type of attribution is required?

If you use the Basic (free) database, you must link back to this page:
https://simplemaps.com/data/uk-cities
from a public webpage where you are using the data. If you want to use the data internally, you must link back to this page from your firm's website on a page that can be easily found through links on the root domain. The link must be clearly visible to the human eye.

How often do you release updates?

We monitor our sources and release new versions when we have more current data. Upon purchase, you can elect to receive email alerts when we release new versions.

Can I purchase additional updates?

Yes. After updates expire, you can purchase 12 more months of updates for $99 (Pro) or $199 (Comprehensive).

Does the database contain neighbourhoods?

No, the database does not contain neighbourhoods or places that are within other listed towns/cities. The exception is London boroughs, which are included as separate entries alongside the Greater London metro area.

*This database contains information from the Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, licensed under the Open Government Licence. This does not imply endorsement of our product.

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