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Overview

North East · Unitary authority

County Durham

2026/27 view

County Durham · ONS E06000047

Financial position as at 2026/27 Q1 quarter end

View sources
PEOPLE AND PLACE

Population and community profile

Latest official statistics
Population 538,011 2024
North East region 2,760,678
County Durham represents 19.49% of the region's population
Five-year population change
+19,449 residents ↑ 3.8%
2019: 518,562 residents2020: 519,204 residents2021: 521,447 residents2022: 527,755 residents2023: 533,997 residents2024: 538,011 residents
County Durham +3.8%
North East +4.7%
England +4.3%
Growth context

County Durham's population grew over five years. Its change was 1.0 percentage points below the North East and broadly in line with England.

2019–2024 ONS mid-year estimates
Population estimates and labour-market measures from ONS/Nomis.Official profile
AIR QUALITY

How clean is the air?

Long-term particulate pollution across the council area, alongside measurements from local UK-AIR monitoring stations.

Defra 2,024
POPULATION-WEIGHTED ANNUAL MEAN

Fine particulate matter

5.4 µg/m³

PM2.5 · 2,024

Human-related sources 5.1 µg/m³
Other sources 0.4 µg/m³
Modelled population-weighted annual concentration across the local authority area. This is not a live sensor reading.
LONG-TERM TREND

PM2.5 over time

39.8%
9.5 5.0
2011: 8.98 µg/m³ 2012: 8.80 µg/m³ 2013: 9.52 µg/m³ 2014: 9.43 µg/m³ 2015: 7.18 µg/m³ 2016: 6.34 µg/m³ 2017: 6.38 µg/m³ 2018: 6.52 µg/m³ 2019: 6.09 µg/m³ 2020: 4.98 µg/m³ 2021: 5.80 µg/m³ 2022: 6.51 µg/m³ 2023: 5.67 µg/m³ 2024: 5.41 µg/m³
2011 2024
Since 2011 ↓ 39.8%
5 years ↓ 11.2%
10 years ↓ 42.7%
CURRENT MONITORING

Latest station measurement

UK-AIR
No active UK-AIR monitoring station is currently mapped to this council.
HEALTH IMPACT

Particulate air pollution

4.1% of mortality attributable to particulate air pollution
2024 Not compared

This OHID measure estimates the mortality burden associated with particulate air pollution. It is a health-impact measure, not a pollution concentration.

Annual PM2.5 is Defra Pollution Climate Mapping data. Monitoring readings are station-specific UK-AIR measurements and may be provisional. Defra source