Population & Place
Population and Place background
The purpose of the Population and Place Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) section is to support the work of the Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board by summarising key local needs, and services, and providing a series of evidence-based priorities to improve the health of the local population. It acts as a useful reference to inform high quality and co-ordinated local commissioning and provision of services shaped to the needs of their users, as well as to inform the wider council and members of the public.1
This section provides information on the underlying trends in population and the over-arching health outcomes identified in the Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF). It sets out the key needs and issues of the local population, and makes a series of evidence-based recommendations to improve health and wellbeing, and to reduce inequalities. Milton Keynes City’s overall score for deprivation relative to all other local authorities in England (using the 2025 Index of Multiple Deprivation), puts it in the fourth least deprived decile. Where possible, Milton Keynes City is compared to local authorities of similar deprivation (e.g. Derbyshire, Essex, Suffolk, and Reading).2
Finding the information you need
The dashboard features information that provides insight into the make-up of the population of Milton Keynes City, including on: age and sex; ethnicity; life expectancy, healthy life expectancy and population density.
Format: This is a Power BI dashboard, which enables you to interrogate the data and charts according to your needs.
Headlines from the 2021 Census
Between the last two censuses (held in 2011 and 2021), the population of Milton Keynes increased by 15.4%, from just over 248,800 in 2011 to around 287,100 in 2021.
This means Milton Keynes’ population saw the second-largest percentage increase in the South East, behind Dartford (where the population increased by 19.9%). The population of the South East increased by 7.5%, while the population of England rose by 6.6%.
In 2021, Milton Keynes was home to around 6.6 people per football pitch-sized piece of land, compared with 5.8 in 2011. This area was close to the median population density across English local authority areas at the last census.
Local Insight
For more information about Milton Keynes City and how the people of the area live, please see the Local Insight report below. This allows you to find, explore and use a wide range of facts and figures for Milton Keynes City.
If you cannot find the information you are looking for, contact the Population Health Evidence and Intelligence team
References
- Department of Health. 2011. Joint strategic needs assessment and joint health and wellbeing strategies explained. Available at:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/215261/dh_131733.pdf [Accessed 11 December 2020]. - English Indices of Deprivation 2025. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-indices-of-deprivation-2025 [Accessed 02 July 2026].