The Fastest Growing Cities in the UK, Ranked by Population Growth
Exeter is the fastest growing city in the UK by population, up 15.5% between 2014 and 2024. Milton Keynes is second on the same rounded figure, and Telford is third at 14.9%.
The full ranking covers all 63 of the UK's largest cities and towns. Each one is measured on a single figure, the percentage change in its population between the official estimates for 2014 and 2024. Centre for Cities compared those estimates in its Cities Outlook 2026 report. London added more people than anywhere else and still sits 37th. The UK as a whole grew 7.2%, and 32 of the 63 places beat that.
Article updated: September 2026
Every figure here comes from the 2014 and 2024 population estimates, not from a 2026 head count and not from a forecast. The list covers built-up urban areas, so it includes large towns as well as cities, and boundaries such as London's and Manchester's run wider than the councils that share their names.
Fastest Growing UK Cities: All 63 Ranked by Population Growth
Growth is the percentage change between the 2014 and 2024 population estimates. Telford, in third place, is a town rather than a city; its postcodes are covered in our guide to the areas of Telford.
| Rank & Area | Population 2014 | Population 2024 | Added Residents | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Exeter | 119,789 | 138,399 | 18,610 | 15.5% |
| 2. Milton Keynes | 264,948 | 305,884 | 40,936 | 15.5% |
| 3. Telford | 170,610 | 195,952 | 25,342 | 14.9% |
| 4. Cambridge | 130,432 | 149,352 | 18,920 | 14.5% |
| 5. Peterborough | 195,766 | 223,655 | 27,889 | 14.2% |
| 6. Slough | 147,313 | 167,359 | 20,046 | 13.6% |
| 7. Reading | 325,876 | 370,107 | 44,231 | 13.6% |
| 8. Coventry | 325,066 | 369,026 | 43,960 | 13.5% |
| 9. Leicester | 495,664 | 558,208 | 62,544 | 12.6% |
| 10. Northampton | 391,024 | 439,811 | 48,787 | 12.5% |
| 11. Bristol | 713,674 | 800,731 | 87,057 | 12.2% |
| 12. Luton | 213,749 | 239,090 | 25,341 | 11.9% |
| 13. Swindon | 218,998 | 243,875 | 24,877 | 11.4% |
| 14. Crawley | 111,522 | 124,008 | 12,486 | 11.2% |
| 15. Wakefield | 331,624 | 367,666 | 36,042 | 10.9% |
| 16. Preston | 360,689 | 399,816 | 39,127 | 10.8% |
| 17. Burnley | 179,589 | 199,010 | 19,421 | 10.8% |
| 18. Manchester | 2,413,820 | 2,664,742 | 250,922 | 10.4% |
| 19. Gloucester | 126,167 | 138,598 | 12,431 | 9.9% |
| 20. Leeds | 770,434 | 845,189 | 74,755 | 9.7% |
| 21. Liverpool | 612,307 | 671,526 | 59,219 | 9.7% |
| 22. Newport | 239,016 | 262,018 | 23,002 | 9.6% |
| 23. Cardiff | 350,949 | 383,919 | 32,970 | 9.4% |
| 24. Edinburgh | 485,270 | 530,680 | 45,410 | 9.4% |
| 25. Southampton | 369,485 | 402,357 | 32,872 | 8.9% |
| 26. Blackburn | 149,579 | 162,540 | 12,961 | 8.7% |
| 27. Norwich | 262,936 | 285,339 | 22,403 | 8.5% |
| 28. Glasgow | 967,140 | 1,049,270 | 82,130 | 8.5% |
| 29. Aldershot | 185,501 | 200,243 | 14,742 | 7.9% |
| 30. Wigan | 320,075 | 344,922 | 24,847 | 7.8% |
| 31. Birmingham | 2,480,354 | 2,667,579 | 187,225 | 7.5% |
| 32. Derby | 255,320 | 274,149 | 18,829 | 7.4% |
| 33. Middlesbrough | 469,249 | 502,189 | 32,940 | 7.0% |
| 34. Chatham | 273,977 | 292,655 | 18,678 | 6.8% |
| 35. Basildon | 181,317 | 193,632 | 12,315 | 6.8% |
| 36. Barnsley | 236,421 | 251,770 | 15,349 | 6.5% |
| 37. London | 9,773,527 | 10,408,044 | 634,517 | 6.5% |
| 38. Worthing | 107,291 | 113,866 | 6,575 | 6.1% |
| 39. Newcastle | 838,421 | 889,783 | 51,362 | 6.1% |
| 40. Mansfield | 228,713 | 242,710 | 13,997 | 6.1% |
| 41. Bradford | 531,795 | 563,605 | 31,810 | 6.0% |
| 42. Belfast | 477,058 | 504,059 | 27,001 | 5.7% |
| 43. Hull | 260,896 | 275,401 | 14,505 | 5.6% |
| 44. Stoke | 377,478 | 398,152 | 20,674 | 5.5% |
| 45. Oxford | 157,582 | 166,034 | 8,452 | 5.4% |
| 46. Doncaster | 303,673 | 319,765 | 16,092 | 5.3% |
| 47. Sheffield | 816,196 | 859,088 | 42,892 | 5.3% |
| 48. Bournemouth | 389,727 | 408,967 | 19,240 | 4.9% |
| 49. Blackpool | 219,160 | 229,638 | 10,478 | 4.8% |
| 50. Sunderland | 275,751 | 288,606 | 12,855 | 4.7% |
| 51. Nottingham | 650,345 | 680,074 | 29,729 | 4.6% |
| 52. Huddersfield | 429,036 | 447,847 | 18,811 | 4.4% |
| 53. Swansea | 378,667 | 394,553 | 15,886 | 4.2% |
| 54. Southend | 351,375 | 365,652 | 14,277 | 4.1% |
| 55. Plymouth | 261,980 | 272,067 | 10,087 | 3.9% |
| 56. Warrington | 208,056 | 215,391 | 7,335 | 3.5% |
| 57. York | 202,206 | 209,301 | 7,095 | 3.5% |
| 58. Brighton | 339,524 | 348,759 | 9,235 | 2.7% |
| 59. Portsmouth | 525,439 | 539,655 | 14,216 | 2.7% |
| 60. Aberdeen | 226,170 | 231,780 | 5,610 | 2.5% |
| 61. Birkenhead | 320,917 | 328,873 | 7,956 | 2.5% |
| 62. Dundee | 147,360 | 149,880 | 2,520 | 1.7% |
| 63. Ipswich | 138,108 | 140,274 | 2,166 | 1.6% |
Source: Centre for Cities, Data tool 2026 dataset (updated February 2026), comparing ONS population estimates for 2014 and 2024 across its 63 Primary Urban Areas. Percentages rounded to one decimal place; the order follows the unrounded figures.
Eighteen of the 63 grew by 10% or more, and every one of them is in England. All of the top ten sit in the Midlands, the East or the South; Wakefield, at 15th, is the highest-placed area in the North. Scotland's four areas run from Edinburgh at 24th down to Dundee at 62nd, Wales from Newport at 22nd to Swansea at 53rd, and Belfast is 42nd. Ipswich, last at 1.6%, added 2,166 people in ten years.
Which Is the Fastest Growing City in the UK: Exeter or Milton Keynes?
Exeter. Both show 15.5% once rounded to one decimal place. Taken to two decimal places, Exeter is 15.54% and Milton Keynes 15.45%, and the ranking is set on the full figures before any rounding. Centre for Cities publishes the same top ten in Table 1 of its City monitor, with Exeter first.
Milton Keynes added more than twice as many people: 40,936 against Exeter's 18,610. Exeter started from a smaller base of 119,789, so each extra person adds more to its percentage. That is the whole difference between the two.
The property figures for each are on their own pages, dated separately: Exeter house prices and buy to let Milton Keynes.
Biggest Population Growth Versus Fastest: Where London and Manchester Sit
London added 634,517 people between 2014 and 2024, more than the next three areas combined, and ranks 37th at 6.5%. Manchester added 250,922 and ranks 18th at 10.4%. Birmingham added 187,225 and ranks 31st at 7.5%. The three largest urban areas in the country take the top three places for added residents and none of the top ten for growth rate.
A percentage measures change against the starting size. London's 6.5% is a small share of a very large base; Exeter's 15.5% is a big share of a small one. Both facts are true at once, so the table carries the growth rate and the added residents in separate columns.
London's 6.5% also lands just below the UK figure of 7.2%. Another 30 areas came in under the UK rate, among them Newcastle, Bradford, Belfast, Sheffield, Nottingham and Brighton. The 32 places above the UK rate run from Exeter down to Derby at 7.4%.
How the 63 Cities and Large Towns Are Defined and Measured
The 63 places are Centre for Cities' Primary Urban Areas, which it describes as a measure of the built-up area of a large city or town rather than individual local authority districts. Centre for Cities is an independent research charity. The population numbers underneath are Office for National Statistics estimates for 2014 and 2024. That is the source Centre for Cities gives for them, and it brings the estimates together in Cities Outlook 2026 and the data tool behind it.
A Primary Urban Area is not the same thing as a city council or a combined authority. Large towns such as Telford, Slough and Aldershot are in the list. London here is Greater London plus ten surrounding districts, Broxbourne to Woking, which is why its 2024 population is 10,408,044 rather than the Greater London figure. Manchester is nine authorities: Manchester, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside and Trafford. That is neither the city council alone nor the whole of Greater Manchester, because Wigan is listed on its own. Northampton is a single authority, West Northamptonshire, so its 439,811 covers more than the town itself.
The growth column is the full ten-year change, not an annual rate, and it compares two past estimates rather than projecting anything forward. Every place uses the same two years.
What Population Growth Does and Does Not Tell a Property Investor
Population growth tells you how many more people lived in a place in 2024 than in 2014. It does not tell you what happened to house prices, rents or yields there. Exeter and Ipswich sit at opposite ends of the table, and neither figure says anything about what a two-bed in either city sold or let for.
The question a landlord actually asks about a growth figure is whether it showed up in the rent. This table cannot answer that. The useful work starts when you put the growth figure next to the rent figure for the same city. Our guide to the best rental yields in the UK gives those rent figures, area by area.
If you are weighing up investment property in the UK, population growth is one figure to look at alongside prices, rents and yields. The buy to let properties for sale and below market value properties on this site are priced property by property, not by how fast the city around them grew.
Population is one of the figures behind our guides to property investment in the UK; the sold prices, rents and yields sit next to it on each city's own page.
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