ONS Figures Show Population Increase Of 1,000 A Day

The UK’s population is growing by 1,000 a day, according to new figures released by the Office for National Statistics.

Record levels of immigration and a higher birth rate have seen the number living in England and Wales grow by twice the European average.

Only Germany and France, which are much bigger, are now home to more people than Britain, the ONS said.

The ONS’s latest calculations show that the population of England and Wales increased by 95,000 (0.17 per cent) between Census day last year, 27 March, and the mid-year point, 30 June.

This works out at more than 1,000 people a day, taking the total to 56,170,900.

The population changed over the three months in 2011, as 187,600 babies were born and 121,000 people died.

Some 98,200 foreign nationals moved to Britain with the intention of staying for more than a year, while 68,500 people left the country, putting net migration over the period at 28,400.

The ONS noted: “Immigration flows are comparatively lower for the three-month period between end of March and June.”

The new figures show the scale of the challenge faced by ministers in meeting their goal of reducing net migration – the number who settle each year minus those who move abroad – to the “tens of thousands” from the current level of 200,000.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the pressure group Migration Watch UK, said: “It is absolutely absurd to find that our population is continuing to shoot up in this way.

“Two-thirds of our population increase is down to immigration. That is the only element that the Government can control and it is high time they did so.”

England and Wales now has the fourth largest population among 26 nations in Europe, but Britain as a whole is third in the rankings.

(H/GK)