Population of England to rise 4.5m in a decade
Growth rate ‘getting faster’
THE number of people in England will rise by more than four and a half million over the next decade, official estimates said yesterday.
The estimates mean population growth over the next ten years will outpace the historic record increase of the past decade.
Figures on future growth, from the Office for National Statistics, were made public following Home Secretary Theresa May’s suggestion earlier this month that no specific effort would be made to keep Britain’s overall population below the symbolic 70million level that one Labour minister promised would never be reached.
Britain’s population is around the 63million mark and estimates suggest the 70million figure – which critics say
‘Reach 70million before 2027’
would overstretch housing, transport, education, health services and utilities – will be hit before the currently expected date of 2027.
The projections for England’s population in 2021 have been calculated following last year’s census, which found around half a million more people in the country than were thought to be living here.
This means numbers are expected to be 667,000 higher in 2021 than previously thought.
According to the ONS projections, England will now have 57,688,000 people in 2021 compared with 53,107,000 last year. The anticipated population increase over a decade is 4,581,000.
The figure follows the acknowledgement from the ONS earlier this week that numbers in England and Wales went up by four million between 2001 and 2011, the fastest rate of increase in more than a century. The population boom is thought to be driven by both immigration and higher birthrates.
Immigration and births to migrants were responsible for around 70 per cent of growth, with the rest accounted for by higher birthrates among mothers born in Britain.
The ONS said yesterday that population predictions over the next ten years have been increased because ‘estimates for women of childbearing age have been too low in the decade to 2010’.
It added that, because of census findings, there are now thought to be 245,000 more women aged between 16 and 44 in England than previously estimated.
According to the new projections the population of London will go up by more than a million by 2021, rising from 8,204,000 now to 9,371,000.
The South East will have to find room for 800,000 more people – the equivalent of five towns the size of Reading.
The other biggest growth region will be the East, which will have 600,000 more people.
Simon Ross of Population Matters, which campaigns for more sustainable living, said: ‘This growth rate is one of the highest in Europe, for a country that is already one of its most densely populated.
‘It is hardly surprising that we face issues in housing, transport and employment. In the medium term, these numbers are unsustainable.
‘The Government must be supported in its efforts to limit net migration and should take steps to reduce the birth rate through improving sexual health and encouraging people to have smaller families.’