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Overview

South West · Unitary authority

Plymouth

2026/27 view

Plymouth · ONS E06000026

Financial position as at 2026/27 Q1 quarter end

View sources
PEOPLE AND PLACE

Population and community profile

Latest official statistics
Population 272,067 2024
South West region 5,889,695
Plymouth represents 4.62% of the region's population
Five-year population change
+7,026 residents ↑ 2.7%
2019: 265,041 residents2020: 264,830 residents2021: 264,768 residents2022: 267,507 residents2023: 270,605 residents2024: 272,067 residents
Plymouth +2.7%
South West +4.4%
England +4.3%
Growth context

Plymouth's population grew over five years. Its change was 1.7 percentage points below the South West and 1.6 percentage points below 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

5.5 µg/m³

PM2.5 · 2,024

Human-related sources 4.6 µg/m³
Other sources 0.9 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

47.3%
11.0 4.5
2011: 10.47 µg/m³ 2012: 9.35 µg/m³ 2013: 9.87 µg/m³ 2014: 9.31 µg/m³ 2015: 11.01 µg/m³ 2016: 9.13 µg/m³ 2017: 8.21 µg/m³ 2018: 7.62 µg/m³ 2019: 7.66 µg/m³ 2020: 6.85 µg/m³ 2021: 6.84 µg/m³ 2022: 4.54 µg/m³ 2023: 5.76 µg/m³ 2024: 5.52 µg/m³
2011 2024
Since 2011 ↓ 47.3%
5 years ↓ 28.0%
10 years ↓ 40.7%
CURRENT MONITORING

Latest station measurement

UK-AIR
PM2.5 8.5 µg/m³
Provisional
Last 24 hours 2.4 – 11.4 µg/m³
2026-09-22 02:00:00+01: 3.0 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 03:00:00+01: 2.4 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 04:00:00+01: 3.2 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 05:00:00+01: 3.9 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 06:00:00+01: 3.9 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 07:00:00+01: 2.5 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 08:00:00+01: 2.9 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 09:00:00+01: 5.5 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 10:00:00+01: 6.5 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 11:00:00+01: 7.1 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 12:00:00+01: 6.8 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 13:00:00+01: 3.8 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 14:00:00+01: 4.0 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 15:00:00+01: 4.3 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 16:00:00+01: 5.1 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 17:00:00+01: 5.4 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 18:00:00+01: 6.4 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 19:00:00+01: 6.9 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 20:00:00+01: 6.6 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 21:00:00+01: 8.8 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 22:00:00+01: 11.4 µg/m³ 2026-09-22 23:00:00+01: 10.1 µg/m³ 2026-09-23 00:00:00+01: 8.7 µg/m³ 2026-09-23 01:00:00+01: 8.5 µg/m³
Plymouth Centre Automatic Urban and Rural Monitoring Network (AURN); PAH Digitel (solid phase) · Urban Background 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

4.2% 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