People
With a resident population of 1,610,300 Kent has the largest population of all the South East counties. Just over half of the total population of Kent is female (51.3%) and (48.7%) are male.
Read the mid-year population estimates age and gender profile bulletin (PDF, 454.0 KB).
Population change
Over the past 10 years Kent's population has grown by 8.1% between 2013 and 2023. This is higher than the average both for the South East (7.6%) and for England (7%).
Read the population change bulletin (PDF, 228.6 KB).
Kent’s population is forecast to increase by a further 18.2% between 2022 and 2040.
Age
Overall, the age profile of Kent residents is similar to that of England. However, Kent does have a greater proportion of young people aged 14 years and under and of people aged 50+ years than the England average. Just over a fifth of Kent’s population is aged 65 and over (20.5%).
Read the age and sex profile bulletin (PDF, 454.0 KB).
Kent has an aging population. Forecasts show that the number of 65+ year olds is forecast to increase by 40.7% between 2022 and 2040, yet the proportion of population aged under 65 is only forecast to increase by 12.3%.
Read the interactive population estimate toolkit.
Ethnicity, religion and health
The largest ethnic group in Kent is White. 83% of all residents are of white British ethnic origin, and 17% are of other minority ethnic origin. The largest single other ethnic group in Kent is Asian representing 4.4% of the total population.
48.5% of Kent residents describe themselves as Christian, whilst the largest non-Christian religious group is Muslim (1.6%). 46.6% of the population stated that they had no religion or did not state their religion.
82.2% of Kent residents describe their health as being “very good” or “good” and 18.0% of Kent’s population have an illness or condition which limits their day-to-day activities in some way.
Read more about Kent area profiles.
Disability
The number of Kent residents who are claiming disability benefits is 161,897 (10.2%). This is higher than the national figure (9.7%) and the the South East region (8.2%).
Read the disability in Kent bulletin (PDF, 1.1 MB).
Work
60.3% of Kent’s population (971,500 people) are of working age (aged 16 to 64). 78.9% of Kent’s resident working age population is economically active which means that they are either in work or actively looking for work.
Read more about Kent area profiles.
The remaining 21.1% of the working age population are economically inactive. These people are not in work nor are they looking to work. This group includes those who are retired, looking after home and family, students or are permanently sick or unable to work.
Read the labour force profile (PDF, 1.1 MB).
Benefits
159,144 Kent residents were claiming Universal Credit as at November 2024. 36.8% of those were in employment of some kind.
Read the benefit claimants in Kent bulletin (PDF, 713.0 KB).
Currently, approximately 33,310 people in Kent (3.4%) are claiming unemployment benefit. This is lower than the rate for Great Britain (4.1%).
Read the unemployment change bulletins.
Qualifications
Over a third of Kent's population aged 16 to 64 (41.6%) are qualified to at least RQF level 4/5. This is lower than both the national average (46.9%) and the figure for the South East as a whole (48.52%). The percentage of Kent's population aged 16 to 64 with no qualifications, at 7.2%, is above the national figure of 6.5% and higher than the South East (5.131%).
Read the district profile.