UK Population: Free KS2 Statistics Task

A free Year 5 and 6 statistics investigation using real ONS UK population data, with line graph questions, reasoning, challenge and full answers.
This free Britain by Numbers investigation gives children the chance to work with real UK population data from the Office for National Statistics.

Children use a line graph showing how the UK population changed from 1981 to 2021 and answer carefully sequenced questions involving:

• retrieval
• comparison
• calculating increases
• interpreting trends
• reasoning from data
• recognising how graph scales can affect interpretation
• making a simple prediction
  The resource includes:
• 2 pupil activity pages
• 1 teacher notes and answers page
• a clear UK population line graph
• full answers
• acceptable answer ranges
• curriculum links
• explanation of rounding and estimates
• ONS source and licence information
• low-ink, print-ready A4 design

Suitable for Year 5 and Year 6 statistics, maths lessons, geography links, morning work, independent practice or assessment-style reasoning.

This resource supports upper KS2 work on line graphs, comparison, sum and difference problems, reasoning and interpreting real data.

A full Britain by Numbers pack with five real-data investigations is also available separately.