APD | UK to see over 70 million of population by 2031: agency

By APD writer Aditya Nugraha

Population of the United Kingdom (UK) is projected to exceed 70 million by mid-2031 with net international migration was expected to contribute 73 percent and more births than deaths could account for 27 percent to UK population growth over the next decade.

UK’s Office for National Statistics estimated that as a whole the nation’s births will reach 7.2 million while mortality may reach 6.4 million in the next decade. The statistics agency also estimated that UK will record a 5.4 million people migrating into the country and 3.3 million to emigrate from the country for a long term.

Overall, the UK’s population growth rate is slower than in projections made in 2016, with the expected population anticipated to be 400,000 less in mid-2028 and 900,000 less in mid-2043.

The population is expected to increase by 3 million, from an estimated 66.4 million in mid-2018 to 69.4 million in mid-2028, the agency said.

“The UK population is projected to grow by 3 million people by 2028. This assumes migration will have a greater impact on the size of the population than the combination of births and deaths,” an agency’s population projection unit officer Andrew Nash said.

UK’s population is projected to grow 5 percent in the next decade, a faster rate than Northern Ireland (3.7 percent), Scotland (1.8 percent) and Wales (0.6 percent).

The pace of growth is expected to slow based on assumptions that fewer children will be born, in light of recent falls in fertility rates, and a slower rate of increase in life expectancy.

Proportion of people above 85 years old and over is projected to almost double during the next 25 years.

The projected population growth is less than that over the past 25 years. Between mid-1993 and mid-2018, the population increased 15.1 percent, or 9 million ones. But between mid-2018 and mid-2043, the population growth is projected to grow by 9 percent, or 6 million ones.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)