List of longest running characters

The following is a list of the top 100 longest serving Emmerdale characters who have been featured in the show as of July 2015. It only includes appearances within the main programme and not the spin-offs.

The list is sorted by default in the order of time between first and last appearances of a character in years and months. Some guest characters, who only made short-term appearances which would otherwise allow them to be included in this list such as Jim Latimer, Anya King and Thomas King are excluded.

Some characters have been played by more than one actor, including Robert Sugden, Victoria Barton, Jack Sugden, Sarah Sugden and Aaron Livesy, etc. The actor listed in each case is whoever played the character most recently.