The City of Milton Keynes is a borough with city status, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is the northernmost district of the South East England Region. The borough abuts Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and the remainder of Buckinghamshire. The borough is administered by Milton Keynes City Council, a unitary authority. The principal built-up area in the borough is the Milton Keynes urban area, which accounts for about 20% of its area and 90% of its population. The borough also includes many rural areas surrounding the Milton Keynes urban area (especially to the north), containing several villages and the town of Olney. At the 2021 census, the population of the unitary authority area was just over 287,000.

History

The district was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, covering the whole area of four former districts and part of a fifth, which were all abolished at the same time: The new district was named Milton Keynes (after its largest settlement). The district was given borough status from its creation, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor. As established in 1974, the borough of Milton Keynes was one of five non-metropolitan districts of Buckinghamshire, with Buckinghamshire County Council providing county-level services to the area. On 1 April 1997, Milton Keynes became a self-governing unitary authority by being redefined as its own non-metropolitan county, independent from Buckinghamshire County Council. Milton Keynes remains part of the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire for the purposes of lieutenancy. On 15 August 2022, letters patent were issued giving the borough the status of a city, allowing the council to change its name to Milton Keynes City Council.

Local government

Arising from the local government elections of May 2024, the borough is governed by a Labour administration. The Liberal Democrat party is the main opposition group. In the 2024 Labour gained 4 seats to become the majority party, having previously been part of a joint Labour-Lib-Dem run administration. The borough is fully parished, with over 50 parishes.

Economy

According to data from the Office for National Statistics for 2017, the borough was the highest performing NUTS3 region in the UK outside inner London (which takes the first five places), on the basis of gross value added per head.

Education

Further education in the borough is provided by Milton Keynes College. For higher education, the Open University's headquarters are in Milton Keynes – though, as this is a distance education institution, the only students resident on campus are approximately 200 full-time postgraduates. A campus of the University of Bedfordshire located in Central Milton Keynes, provides conventional undergraduate courses. Cranfield University is the academic partner in project with Milton Keynes City Council to establish a new university, code-named "MK:U", on a reserved site in the city centre. , the project is stalled pending assurance of government funding.

Demographics

Population

At the 2021 census, the population of the borough was 287,060. This was an increase of 15.3% from the 2011 census, when the population of the borough was 248,821. By 2050, the City Council projects that the borough's population will reach 410,000.

Education

At the 2021 census, of residents aged 16 and over, 15.8% had no qualifications, 10.9% had a level1 qualification, 14.2% had level2, 4.7% were in apprenticeship, 15.7% had level3, 35.8% had level4 and 2.9% had other qualifications.

Ethnicity

In the 2021 census, almost 71.8% of the population described their ethnic origin as white, 12.3% as Asian, 9.7% as black, 4% as mixed, and 2% as another ethnic group.

Religion

The following table shows the religion of respondents in recent censuses in the city of Milton Keynes.

Housing and home ownership

Household tenure breaks down to 60.8% of dwellings owner-occupied, 21% of homes privately rented and 18% are socially rented. Due to the borough's fast-growing population, the City Council plans for a minimum of 26,500 dwellings across the borough over the period between 2016 and 2031, with development primarily focused on city estates, expansion areas and strategic land locations in the south and east of Milton Keynes, Campbell Park (in CMK) and the three "Key Settlements" outside of the 1967 "designated development area" of Milton Keynes: Newport Pagnell, Woburn Sands and Olney.

Public health

According to Public Health England, "The health of people in Milton Keynes is generally similar to the England average. About 15.1% (8,680) children live in low income families. Life expectancy for both men and women is similar to the England average."

Settlements

Milton Keynes urban area

The City of Milton Keynes is fully parished. These are the parishes, and the districts they contain, that are now elements of the Milton Keynes built-up area as defined by the Office for National Statistics. Bletchley, Central Milton Keynes, Fenny Stratford, Newport Pagnell, Stony Stratford, Woburn Sands and Wolverton are towns.

Rest of the borough

The rural area accounts for about 80% of the borough by area and about 10% by population. Olney is a town. These are the extra-urban civil parishes:

Neighbourhood Plans

, the borough has 28 designated Neighbourhood Areas, of which 22 have made/adopted Neighbourhood Development Plans approved by the City Council, spanning both urban and rural parishes.

Freedom of the City

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the City (from 2022) or Freedom of the Borough (1982–2021).

Individuals

Military Units

Organisations and businesses