Milton Keynes
Living in Milton Keynes
Established less than 50 years ago, Milton Keynes is just 35 minutes by train from Central London and the fastest growing place in the UK, with a strong economy and an increasingly diverse population 2021 Census, the population of its area was over 256,000. This is expected to grow to 300,000 by 2026 and 95 main languages are now spoken here. The City of Milton Keynes covers a thriving centre, acres of green space and charming market towns. It has busy shopping centres and stylish restaurants, is world-famous for its extreme sports facilities and is bursting with beautiful lakes and open spaces, and a cultural calendar packed with great events, including an innovative International Arts Festival.
On 15 August 2022, the Crown Office announced that Queen Elizabeth II had ordained by letters patent that the (then) Borough of Milton Keynes should have city status. The civic honour was granted to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Where are you heading? If shopping is your passion, you’ll love thecentre:mk. This world-class undercover shopping centre attracts 30 million shoppers every year with more than 230 top stores, high street names and independent retailers.
Sports fans love Milton Keynes. No wonder. It’s the extreme sports capital of the UK with adrenaline-pumping excitement right in the heart of the city. Step onto real snow and ski, snowboard or toboggan at the SNO!zone, one of the biggest indoor snow slopes in the country. Or, defy gravity and fly like a bird at the amazing indoor skydiving centre Airkix. An unforgettable experience. Or, if you don’t mind getting wet then head over to Wake MK for one of the UK’s newest and highest tech cable centres for waterskiers and boarders.
Explore the surprising history of the area with a tour of Bletchley Park. Discover the secret headquarters of the ingenious war-time code-breakers. Trace the intriguing history of the region from 1800 to the present day at Milton Keynes Museum.
The theatre and events get top billing too. Take in a show featuring West End stars at famous MK Theatre. Visit ‘The Bowl’, the stunning 65,000 seat venue, which plays host to superstars like Robbie Williams, Take That and Bon Jovi.
Working in Milton Keynes
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Milton Keynes was worth an estimated £16 billion in 2021, according to figures published by the ONS. Milton Keynes’s GDP growth between 2020 and 2021 was 11.4% per year. The Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles industry is the largest in Milton Keynes based on the number of jobs, accounting for 17.0% of roles in the area.
ONS figures for 2021 suggest that there are 196,000 jobs in Milton Keynes, which has a working-age (aged 16-65) population of 187,701. The 2021 job density in Milton Keynes is 1.04, meaning there are 1.04 jobs per member of the Milton Keynes working-age population. Milton Keynes had a median average salary for full-time employees of £39,623 in 2023. Milton Keynes’s unemployment rate is 3.0% as of 2023.
The 2022 labour force or working-age population in Milton Keynes is 187,701 or 64.2% of the total population. In 2022, 97.0% of the labour market was recorded as employed, above the 96.1% average rate for England. Of those employed, 8.2% are self-employed, and 91.8% are employees.