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Overview

East of England · Unitary authority

Luton

2026/27 view

Luton · ONS E06000032

Financial position as at 2026/27 Q1 quarter end

View sources
PEOPLE AND PLACE

Population and community profile

Latest official statistics
Population 239,090 2024
East of England region 6,576,306
Luton represents 3.64% of the region's population
Five-year population change
+15,984 residents ↑ 7.2%
2019: 223,106 residents2020: 224,132 residents2021: 224,958 residents2022: 227,546 residents2023: 233,640 residents2024: 239,090 residents
Luton +7.2%
East of England +4.8%
England +4.3%
Growth context

Luton's population grew over five years. Its change was 2.3 percentage points above the East of England and 2.9 percentage points above 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

7.6 µg/m³

PM2.5 · 2,024

Human-related sources 7.0 µg/m³
Other sources 0.5 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

46.3%
14.1 7.5
2011: 14.09 µg/m³ 2012: 12.49 µg/m³ 2013: 12.45 µg/m³ 2014: 11.94 µg/m³ 2015: 9.86 µg/m³ 2016: 10.95 µg/m³ 2017: 11.53 µg/m³ 2018: 11.33 µg/m³ 2019: 11.51 µg/m³ 2020: 8.34 µg/m³ 2021: 8.22 µg/m³ 2022: 9.45 µg/m³ 2023: 7.52 µg/m³ 2024: 7.57 µg/m³
2011 2024
Since 2011 ↓ 46.3%
5 years ↓ 34.2%
10 years ↓ 36.6%
CURRENT MONITORING

Latest station measurement

UK-AIR
PM2.5 5.6 µg/m³
Provisional
Last 24 hours 5.1 – 12.5 µg/m³
2026-09-22 02:00:00+01: 9.4 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 03:00:00+01: 7.5 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 04:00:00+01: 6.3 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 05:00:00+01: 6.1 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 06:00:00+01: 7.7 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 07:00:00+01: 8.3 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 08:00:00+01: 10.5 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 09:00:00+01: 10.4 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 10:00:00+01: 9.2 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 11:00:00+01: 8.1 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 12:00:00+01: 5.9 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 13:00:00+01: 5.7 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 14:00:00+01: 5.7 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 15:00:00+01: 5.3 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 16:00:00+01: 5.5 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 17:00:00+01: 5.1 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 18:00:00+01: 5.6 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 19:00:00+01: 5.8 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 20:00:00+01: 12.5 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 21:00:00+01: 8.6 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 22:00:00+01: 11.5 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 23:00:00+01: 7.9 µg/m³ 2026-09-23 00:00:00+01: 6.7 µg/m³ 2026-09-23 01:00:00+01: 5.6 µg/m³
Luton A505 Roadside Automatic Urban and Rural Monitoring Network (AURN) · Urban Traffic Latest measurement: 2026-09-23 01:00:00+01

This is a measurement from an individual monitoring station and should not be interpreted as the current concentration across the whole council area.

HEALTH IMPACT

Particulate air pollution

5.7% 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