The UK’s population grew by 1 per cent over the last year, mainly due to net international migration, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Tuesday.
The population of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland rose from 67.6 million in mid-2022 to 68.3 million in mid-2023.
The main driver of the population increase was net international migration. Between June 2022 and June 2023, immigration to the UK was 1.185 million and emigration from the UK was 508,000. Thus, taking into account natural attrition, net migration increased the population by 662,400 people.
This is the largest annual numerical and percentage increase since the beginning of such calculations in 1971.
On October 7 media reported that the largest number of irregular migrants in Europe is in the UK.
Despite the overall increase in population, the natural change – the difference between births and deaths – showed a decline.
According to the ONS, the natural change in population fell by 16,300 over the same period.
This is only the second time since 1976, not counting the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, that the UK has seen negative natural population growth. Previous projections did not anticipate such a trend until the mid-2030s.
