At the 2011 census, the population of the Milton Keynes urban area, including the adjacent Newport Pagnell and Woburn Sands, was 229,941. The population of the Borough in total was 248,800, compared with a population of around 53,000 for the same area in 1961. In 2016, the Office for National Statistics estimated that it will reach 300,000 by 2025. As of June 2019, the population is estimated to have reached 245,404.

The average age of the population is lower than is typical for the UK’s 63 primary urban areas: 25.3% of the Borough population were aged under 18 and 13.4% were aged 65+. The mean age is 35.7 and the median age is 35. 18.5% of residents were born outside the UK. At the 2011 census, the ethnic profile was 78.9% white, 3.4% mixed, 9.7% Asian / Asian British, 7.3% Black / African / Caribbean / Black British, and 0.7% other. The religious profile was that 62% of people were reported having a religion and 31.4% having none; the remainder declined to say: 52% are Christian, 5.1% Muslim, 3.0% Hindu; other religions each had less than 1% of the population.

The Grand Union Canal, the West Coast Main Line, the A5 road and the M1 motorway provide the major axes that influenced the urban designers.

The urban area is served by seven railway stations. Wolverton, Milton Keynes Central and Bletchley stations are on the West Coast Main Line and are served by local commuter services between London and Birmingham or Crewe. Milton Keynes Central is also served by inter-city services between London and Scotland, Wales and the North West and the West Midlands of England: express services to London take 35 minutes. Bletchley, Fenny Stratford, Bow Brickhill, Woburn Sands and Aspley Guise railway stations are on the Marston Vale line to Bedford.

The M1 motorway runs along the east flank of MK and serves it from junctions 11a, 13, 14 and 15. The A5 road runs right through as a grade separated dual carriageway. Other main roads are the A509 to Wellingborough and Kettering, and the A421 and A422, both running west towards Buckingham and east towards Bedford. Additionally, the A4146 runs from (near) junction 14 of the M1 to Leighton Buzzard. Proximity to the M1 has led to construction of a number of distribution centres, including Magna Park at the south-eastern flank of Milton Keynes, near Wavendon.

Many long-distance coaches stop at the Milton Keynes coachway, (beside M1 Junction 14), about 3.3 miles from the centre and 4.3 miles from Milton Keynes Central Railway Station. There is also a park and ride car park on the site. Regional coaches stop at Milton Keynes Central.

Milton Keynes is served by (and, via its Redway network, provides part of) routes 6 and 51 on the National Cycle Network.

The nearest international airport is London Luton and is easily reached by coach. Cranfield Airport, an airfield, is 8 miles (13 km) away.

Schools

In early planning, education provision was carefully integrated into the development plans with the intention that school journeys would, as far as possible, be made by walking and cycling. Each residential grid square was provided with a primary school (ages 5 to 8) for c.240 children, and for each two squares there was a middle school (ages 8 to 12) for c.480 children. For each 8 squares there was a large secondary education campus, to contain between two and four schools for a total of 3000 – 4500 children. All the schools on a campus were served by a central Resource Area. In addition, the campus included a Leisure Centre with indoor and outdoor sports facilities and a swimming pool, plus a theatre. These facilities were available to the public outside school hours, thus maximising use of the investment.

Changes in Central Government policy from the 1980s onwards subsequently led to much of this system being abandoned. Some schools have since been merged and sites sold for development, many converted to academies, and the leisure centres outsourced to commercial providers.

As in most parts of the UK, the state secondary schools in Milton Keynes are comprehensives, although schools in the rest of Buckinghamshire still use the tripartite system. Private schools are also available.

Universities & Colleges

The Open University’s headquarters are in the Walton Hall district; though because this is a distance learning institution, the only students resident on campus are approximately 200 full-time postgraduates. Cranfield University, an all-postgraduate institution, is in nearby Cranfield, Bedfordshire. Milton Keynes College provides further education up to foundation degree level. University Campus Milton Keynes, a campus of the University of Bedfordshire, provides some tertiary education facilities locally.

As of 2020, Milton Keynes is the UK’s largest population centre without its own conventional university, a shortfall that the Council aims to rectify. In January 2019, the Council and its partner, Cranfield University, invited proposals to design a campus near the Central station for a new university, code-named MK:U. Through Milton Keynes University Hospital, the city also has links with the University of Buckingham’s medical school.