OECD Environmental Performance Reviews: United Kingdom 2022

Basic statistics of the United Kingdom

2020 or latest available year (OECD values in parenthesis)1

PEOPLE AND SOCIETY
Population (million)	68		Population density per km2	279	(36)
Share of population by type of region			Population annual growth rate, latest 5 years	0.6	(0.6)
Predominantly urban (%)	74	(48)	Income inequality (Gini coefficient)	0.37
Intermediate (%)	22	(28)	Poverty rate (% of pop. with less than 50% med. income)	12
Rural (%)	4	(24)	Life expectancy	80	(81)
ECONOMY AND EXTERNAL ACCOUNTS
Total GDP (GBP billion)	2112		Imports of goods and services (% of GDP)	31	(29)
Total GDP (USD billion, current PPPs)	3136		Main exports (% of total merchandise exports)
GDP compound annual real growth rate, latest 5 years	-0.5	(0.8)	Machinery and transport equipment	34
GDP per capita (1 000 USD current PPPs)	47	(45)	Chemicals and related products, n.e.s.	16
Value added shares (%)			Miscellaneous manufactured articles	14
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	1	(2)	Main imports (% of total merchandise imports)
Industry including construction	20	(24)	Machinery and transport equipment	31
Services	79	(74)	Commodities and transactions, n.e.s.	16
Exports of goods and services (% of GDP)	30	(29)	Miscellaneous manufactured articles	14
GENERAL GOVERNMENT Per cent of GDP
Expenditure	51	(48)	Education expenditure	4.9	(5.0)
Revenue	38	(38)	Health expenditure	7.7	(7.8)
Gross financial debt	154	(130)	Environmental protection expenditure	0.6	(0.5)
Fiscal balance	-12.9	-(10.4)	Environmental taxes (% of GDP)	2.1	(1.5)
			(% of total tax revenue)	6.2	(5.0)
LABOUR MARKET, SKILLS AND INNOVATION
Unemployment rate (% of civilian labour force)	4.6	(7.1)	Patent in environment-related technologies (% of all technologies, average of latest 3 years)2	11.4	(11.6)
Tertiary educational attainment of 25- to 64-year-olds (%)	49	(39)	Environmental management	4.0	(3.9)
Gross expenditure on R&D (% of GDP)	1.8	(2.5)	Climate mitigation technologies	9.4	(9.5)
			Climate change adaptation technologies	2.8	(2.2)
ENVIRONMENT
Total Energy Supply (TES) intensity TES per capita (toe/cap.)	2.3	(3.7)	Road vehicle stock (vehicles/100 inhabitants)	59
TES per GDP (toe/1 000 USD 2015 PPPs)	0.06	(0.09)	Water stress (abstraction as % of available resources)	4.3	(8.6)
Renewables (% of TES)	13.9	(11.9)	Water abstraction per capita (m3/cap./year)	111	(696)
Carbon intensity (energy-related CO2)			Municipal waste per capita (kg/capita)	455	(538)
Emissions per capita (t/cap.)	4.5	(8.3)	Material productivity (USD, 2015 PPPs/DMC, kg)	5.3	(2.9)
Emissions per GDP (t/1 000 USD 2015 PPPs)	0.12	(0.19)	Land area (1 000 km2)	242
GHG intensity3			% of arable land and permanent crops	25	(11)
Emissions per capita (t CO2 eq/cap.)	6.7	(11.3)	% of permanent meadows/pastures	47	(23)
Emissions per GDP (t CO2 eq/1 000 USD 2015 PPPs)	0.15	(0.26)	% of forest area	13	(33)
Mean population exposure to air pollution (PM2.5), μg/m3	10.0	(13.9)	% of other land (built-up/other land)	13	(32)

1. Values earlier than 2014 are not taken into consideration. OECD value: where the OECD aggregate is not provided in the source database, a simple average of latest available data is calculated where data exist for a significant number of countries.

2. Patent applications for higher-value inventions that have sought protection in at least two jurisdictions.

3. Excluding emissions/removals from land use, land-use change and forestry.

Source: Calculations based on data from databases of the OECD, Eurostat, IEA/OECD and World Bank.