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At the 2021 census, Denbigh had a population of approximately 8,669 people, made up of 4,427 women and 4,243 men — a modest market town by size, but the largest settlement in the immediate Vale of Clwyd away from the coast.
Denbigh sits within Denbighshire, the wider local authority area, whose population grew by 2.2% between the 2011 and 2021 censuses, from just over 93,700 to around 95,800. Like much of rural Wales, the county's population is ageing: the median age across Denbighshire rose by three years over the same decade, from 44 to 47, with a marked rise in residents aged 65 to 74 and a corresponding fall in the 35-to-49 age group.
Just under 59% of Denbighshire residents recorded Wales as their country of birth at the 2021 census, with England the next most common at just over 35% — a reminder of the county's position close to the English border and its long history of cross-border movement, trade and settlement.
Denbigh's population has fluctuated over the centuries in step with its changing economic role — growing during its Elizabethan heyday as one of the richest towns in Wales, and again through the 19th and early 20th centuries as the North Wales Hospital and Howell's School brought substantial employment to the area. Like many small Welsh market towns, its population has remained relatively modest and stable in recent decades compared to the rapid growth seen along the North Wales coast.
Today Denbigh functions primarily as a market town and local service centre for the surrounding rural Vale of Clwyd, with a population large enough to support a good range of shops, schools and services while retaining the close-knit, walkable character that makes it pleasant to explore on foot.