← The Universe · Country fact sheet · No. 2Updated 29 Oct 2026 · 2021 and 2022 census weights

United Kingdom

293 locals speak for 53.1 million adults across the UK.

Locals293People in situations, written from public sources, each at a real UK place.

Adults they speak for53.1MEvery adult in the census samples for all four nations, weighted: 53,108,975.

Have a close local98.9%A local whose situation fits theirs closely.

A typical local181,000adults spoken for (the median). Kieran speaks for the most: 394,000.

Where the UK's locals live

about 7,000 to 394,000 adults

South East 36 locals · 13.8% of adultsLondon 46 locals · 13.0% of adultsNorth West 29 locals · 11.0% of adultsEast of England 27 locals · 9.4% of adultsWest Midlands 22 locals · 8.8% of adultsSouth West 25 locals · 8.7% of adultsScotland 33 locals · 8.4% of adultsYorkshire and the Humber 21 locals · 8.2% of adultsEast Midlands 21 locals · 7.3% of adultsWales 14 locals · 4.7% of adultsNorth East 11 locals · 4.0% of adultsNorthern Ireland 8 locals · 2.8% of adults

Each dot is one local, at the town or neighbourhood in their story, sized by how many adults they speak for. The faces are the local who speaks for the most adults in each region. Ireland is drawn for context.

The groups they stand for

Share of adults

Every adult in the census falls in one of seven groups by life stage, and within it a type by how money feels and where they live. Each local wears the label of the people they speak for, with their ages and gender from the census. The labels describe who a local stands for; they never decide what a local thinks.

Students

In school or college full time, most still finding their feet. 2.5M adults, 15 locals.

Getting by, suburban1.1%
Squeezed, city0.7%
Squeezed, suburban0.6%
Getting by, small-town and rural0.6%

Starting Out

16%

Under 35, working or looking, no kids yet. 8.6M adults, 50 locals.

Getting by, suburban3.9%
Squeezed, suburban2.7%
Getting by, small-town and rural2.4%
Getting by, city1.8%

Settled Singles and Couples

Working age, no kids at home. 4.8M adults, 37 locals.

Getting by, suburban2.1%
Squeezed, suburban1.5%
Getting by, small-town and rural1.4%
Comfortable, suburban1.0%

Young Families

10%

Parents with a child under six. 5.3M adults, 29 locals.

Getting by, suburban2.5%
Getting by, small-town and rural1.6%
Squeezed, suburban1.5%
Comfortable, suburban1.0%

School-Age Families

16%

Parents of school-age kids and teens at home. 8.7M adults, 43 locals.

Getting by, suburban3.9%
Getting by, small-town and rural2.7%
Squeezed, suburban2.6%
Comfortable, suburban2.0%

Empty Nesters

20%

Older working age, kids grown or never had them. 10.8M adults, 57 locals.

Getting by, suburban4.0%
Getting by, small-town and rural3.3%
Comfortable, suburban3.2%
Squeezed, suburban2.9%

Retirees

23%

Out of the workforce, mostly 65 and over. 12.3M adults, 62 locals.

Comfortable, suburban4.9%
Comfortable, small-town and rural4.5%
Getting by, suburban3.9%
Getting by, small-town and rural3.8%

Where adults live

Share of adults · locals

SCO8.4%33 locals

NI2.8%8 locals

NE4.0%11 locals

NW11.0%29 locals

YH8.2%21 locals

WAL4.7%14 locals

WM8.8%22 locals

EM7.3%21 locals

E9.4%27 locals

SW8.7%25 locals

SE13.8%36 locals

LDN13.0%46 locals

Each local counts only for the census people like them, so every share stays true to where adults really live.

Life stage

Share of adultsLocals in that stage

Student

4.6%15 locals

Starting out

16.2%50 locals

Young family

10.0%29 locals

School-age family

16.4%43 locals

Settled

9.1%37 locals

Empty nest

20.4%57 locals

Retired

23.2%62 locals

Life stage, not age, is how a local is matched to the census.

How money feels

26%44%31%

Comfortable 25.9%Getting by 43.6%Squeezed 30.5%

The UK census doesn't ask about income, so this comes from social grade, home and work. Squeezed: social renters, people out of work or long-term sick, and lower-grade households that don't own outright. Comfortable: higher-grade owners.

City, suburb or country

16%49%36%

City 15.5%Suburb 48.7%Small town or rural 35.8%

33.7%rent their home (15.1% from a council or housing association)

3.4%new to the UK (arrived 2017 to 2021)

Language at home

90%9%

English 90.1%Another language 9.2%Welsh 0.7%

7locals write partly in Welsh

9.2%of adults mainly speak another language

Who speaks for the most people

Adults spoken for

Kieran Hessle Road, Yorkshire and the HumberStarting Out · getting by, suburban · A18-34 · mostly 18-34 · about half womenSpeaks for 193k women and 201k men
Having just completed on a two-up two-down off Hessle Road with his Lifetime ISA bonus, he's learning what a boiler service, contents cover and council tax actually cost on a blade technician's wage.
394k
Viv Cwmtillery, WalesRetirees · getting by, small-town and rural · A65+ · mostly 65 and over · about half womenSpeaks for 214k women and 180k men
Since the council put the old coal tip above his terrace in Cwmtillery on the higher-risk register and started checking it after every big storm, he watches each Met Office rain warning closely and has started pricing house insurance that won't quietly drop him.
394k
Jordan Ashford, South EastStarting Out · getting by, suburban · A25-34 · mostly 25-34 · about half womenSpeaks for 189k women and 194k men
Eight months into his first home, a new-build terrace in Chilmington Green bought with a Lifetime ISA, he's still chasing the developer over a snagging list and has just had his first bill from the estate management company.
382k
Kemi Birmingham, West MidlandsStarting Out · getting by, suburban · A25-34 · mostly 25-34 · about half womenSpeaks for 176k women and 186k men
Two years into her first proper job as a youth worker on a fixed-term council contract, she still lives in her parents' semi in Kings Heath and has just been told her post may not survive Birmingham City Council's next round of section 114 cuts, so she's holding off on a car and quietly applying for youth jobs in Solihull and Sandwell.
362k
Becky Gillingham, South EastSchool-Age Families · getting by, suburban · A35-54 · mostly 35-54 · about half womenSpeaks for 193k women and 167k men
Her twins started at a secondary across Medway this term, and with no school bus she's rebuilt her week around a car-share rota and dropping her hours at the Chatham estate agency.
359k

How well the locals cover the UK

99%

Close match 98.9%Loose match 1.1%No local yet 0.0%

Every adult in the census samples is matched to the nearest local.

Data label and IAB segments

For media plans

The same label every debrief ends with, for the whole country: where the locals come from, how they are weighted, and who they stand for in the IAB Tech Lab Audience Taxonomy 1.1, the categories ad platforms and agencies buy audiences in. In the style of the IAB Tech Lab Data Transparency Standard, not a certified label.

Data label

Provider: Crowdsim, Ontario, Canada (hello@crowdsim.ca)
What it is: 293 AI locals, each standing for a share of real adults. Not a list of real or identifiable people.
Who they stand for: Adults 18 and over in the United Kingdom
Data source: ONS, NRS and NISRA census microdata teaching files, 2021 (Scotland 2022), Open Government Licence
Method: Modelled from census microdata. No personal data, cookies, device IDs or customer lists.
Weighting: Each local counts by the census adults most like them; nobody counts more for saying more.
Coverage: 98.9% of 53,108,975 adults have a close local
Refresh: Census figures fixed to their release; the locals updated 29 Oct 2026
Taxonomy: IAB Tech Lab Audience Taxonomy 1.1
Expansion: None. Cross-device: not applicable.

The people they stand for, in IAB segments

Segment	IAB id	Share
Age
Age 18-24	3, 4	11%
Age 25-34	5, 6	17%
Age 35-44	7, 8	16%
Age 45-54	9, 10	17%
Age 55-64	11, 12	16%
Age 65+	13, 14, 15	23%
Gender
Female	49	52%
Male	50	48%
Life stage
Parents with Children	98	26%
Adults (no children)	96	25%
Retired	40	23%
Empty Nest (Adults, Children left home)	101	20%
Student + Adults (no children)	41, 96	5%
Home
Home Owners	138	65%
Renters	139	34%
Language
en	158 (en)	90%

Shares of adults, from the census. An age band covers two or three IAB ranges because the census groups ages that way.