Population statistics are widely used in policy development in areas such as housing, healthcare and education, as well as being used to allocate public funds to the Northern Ireland Executive through the Barnett formula.
These statistics are also of interest to those involved in research and academia. They are widely used to express other statistics as a rate and thus enable comparisons across the United Kingdom and other countries.
Generally, population statistics are available disaggregated by age and sex with information also available for a wide range of administrative and statistical geographies.
For key statistics relating to population estimates, explore the population statistics dashboard.