Population of Britain to soar by 10MILLION in just 25 years: Migrant families will push total to 73million

Britain must make room for almost 10million more people over the next 25 years, according to official estimates yesterday.
The increase, mainly a result of immigration and high migrant birthrates, will push numbers in the country to 73.3million by 2037.

It means England, already the most crowded country in Europe, needs to accommodate the equivalent of a city bigger than London in the next two and a half decades.

Packed: England needs to accommodate the equivalent of a city bigger than London in the next 25 years as the population of Britain is set to soar by 10 million

Border control: The population is set to hit 73.3 million in 2037 with migration and particularly immigration from Eastern Europe cited as the main cause

The controversial milestone of 70million – which one minister in the last Labour government promised would never happen – is likely to be reached in 2027, according to the Office for National Statistics projections.
There will be 4.3million extra people over just ten years between 2012 and 2022.
The projections show that despite a reduction in the scale of immigration, there has been no easing up of the rate at which the population is increasing.
The population is set to hit 73.3million in 2037 – 9.6 million higher than the 63.7 million estimated in the middle of last year.
Migration and particularly immigration from Eastern Europe is cited as the main cause. By comparison, the population rose by 6.8 million in the past 25 years.
Even though ‘net migration’ – the amount by which migration pushes the population up every year – is falling as a result of tighter government restrictions, the population estimates have not come down as a result.

Baby boom: On average over the next 25 years, every woman will have 1.88 children, the projections said, compared to the 1.84 figure in the 2010 estimates

This is because the ONS discovered in the 2011 national census that it had under-counted numbers in the country by almost 500,000.
The great majority of the missed people were migrants from Poland and Eastern Europe who arrived after 2004, and whose arrival had never been officially noticed.
Other factors pushing the estimates up are rising life expectancy and rising fertility rates.

 
On average over the next 25 years, every woman will have 1.88 children, the projections said, compared to the 1.84 figure in the 2010 estimates.
The key reason for increasing fertility is immigration, because immigrants have higher birthrates than the existing population.
The ONS estimates say that 43 per cent of the future population increase will be a direct result of numbers of people coming in to the country, but when migrant birthrates are counted in, immigration will contribute 60 per cent of population increase.
Growing numbers will mean heavy demands on public services, especially housing, at a time when prices are already unaffordable for many young people.

Control: Home Secretary Theresa May has succeeded in reducing net migration, and Immigration Minister Mark Harper, right. says it is still important to control immigration because of its effect on public services and jobs

Pressure: Growing numbers will mean heavy demands on public services, especially housing, at a time when prices are already unaffordable for many young people

Packed: The growing population will also affect transport, including trains, education, water and power supplies

They will also affect transport, education, water and power supplies, and will pile on pressure for building over the green spaces in the most overcrowded parts of the country.
Sir Andrew Green of the MigrationWatch UK pressure group said: ‘These latest projections confirm that we are still on course for a continued and substantial increase in population.
'By the end of the next Parliament the population will have increased by 3 million. This underlines the absolute need to have a net migration target and stick to it.’
Home Secretary Theresa May has succeeded in reducing net migration – the number of people migrating into the country minus the number who leave – to 176,000 last year, compared to 225,000 at its peak.
However immigrant numbers rose because of a new wave of people arriving from high-unemployment countries in southern Europe.

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Ministers are powerless to curb immigration from the EU, and are concerned over what will happen when restrictions on the working rights of citizens of Romania and Bulgaria are lifted in the New Year.
Immigration minister Mark Harper said: ‘Immigration has brought benefits to the UK and we welcome people who want to come here to contribute to our economy and society.
'However, it is important to control immigration because of its effect on social cohesion, our public services, and on jobs and wages.
‘We have already overhauled the immigration rules, tightening the routes where abuse was rife. Our reforms are working.’
Labour MP Frank Field and Tory Nicholas Soames, of the cross-party Group on Balanced Migration, said: ‘These latest projections confirm the rapid growth in our population resulting mainly from the large-scale immigration of recent years.
‘They underline the need to bring net migration sharply down.’