UK population 'to rise to 71.6m'

[Peterpigman]

The population of the UK will rise from 61m to 71.6m by 2033 if current trends in growth continue, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said.

Just over two-thirds of the increase is likely to be related directly or indirectly to migration to the UK.

If the projected increase materialises, the population will have grown at its fastest rate in a century.

But one think tank said the projections were based on trends over the past few years that may not continue.

Ageing population

National population projections are produced every two years to provide an estimate of future population which is used for government planning for pensions and the welfare state.

The latest figures show that if current trends continue:

* The population will grow by more than 10m by 2029, less than half the time it took to rise from 50m to 60m between 1948 and 2005
* The population of pensionable age will rise by 32% over the next 25 years to 15.6m, with the number aged over 85 more than doubling to 3.3m
* In 2033, there will be 2.8 people of working age for every person of state pensionable age - a fall from 3.2 in 2008
* By 2033, the population of England will be almost as large as the current populations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.

The ONS figures suggest that 180,000 new immigrants will arrive every year for the next 25 years - and will have both a direct impact themselves on the population, and an indirect one if they go on to have children.

But that number for new arrivals is 10,000 a year lower than the last ONS projection two years ago and immigration minister Phil Woolas said that showed the government's points-based system was working.

"Today's projections show that population growth is starting to slow down, the impacts of the radical reforms we have made to the immigration system over the last two years are working," he said.

Shadow immigration minister Damian Green disagreed: "A Conservative government would introduce a limit on the numbers allowed to come here to work, as well as other measures to fight illegal immigration."

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of think tank Migration Watch UK, also said the government was "in denial" and "really serious measures" were needed to bring immigration down.

"70% of the fastest growth rate in history is due to immigration," he said. "That is equivalent to the entire population of London in the next 25 years.

"The government's own claim for the effect of their recent measures is an annual reduction of 20,000. Today's projections show that net immigration must be reduced by 180,000 a year if we are to hold the UK's population at 65 million."

Impact of recession

Guy Goodwin, ONS director of population statistics, stressed that the figures were not forecasts or predictions and did not "take account of new or future policy initiatives".

"Really, they're just a benchmark that policy-makers and politicians can look at and say, 'This is where we are heading if things continue very much as they are.'"

Tim Finch, from the Institute for Public Policy Research, agreed: "We don't know exactly where immigration might go in the next few years. It could come down - indeed it already has a bit.

"The recession, that's having an impact, there's also quite tight control of immigration now in place.

"These are projections - it doesn't mean things will necessarily end up that way."

Campaigners for sustainable development said the ONS figures were a "wake-up call for politicians".

Peter Madden, chief executive of Forum for the Future, warned of the impact of public services, housing and the environment if the projected rises did materialise.

source

[C_R]

Yep no fucking surprise. I hate you fuckers! Leave!

[Alias]

Well no-one can say our government isn't doing their best to help. They've now managed to generate a strike by postal workers, when simply agreeing to sit down and talk about the issues would have averted it. At the same time we are told that the swine flu vaccine will soon be available. Only problem there is that if you're eligible for the vaccine, you probably won't get the letter telling you until after you've grown trotters and a curly tail and learned to say "oink".

A subtle but clever way of reducing the population and ensuring there's plenty of pork crackers for new MPs to cut their teeth on.

[Lass From Oz]

61 million people already! Ferkin ferk!!

[TechnoHolocaust]

fuck off pakis

[SE10]

The new labour Britain.

[Womb Raider]

Damn. Your fucking Islands are already full of foreigners as it is. You people already have more Indian restaurants than fucking New Delhi.

[Equal Hater]

I guess YOU are going to be the ones breaded out of your land after all...

[Super Destroyer]

Great--more rotten teeth.

[EATTHEDEAD]

Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, they'll all be islamic states by 2050.

[burp burp barf]

I think you will see a civil war before too long. The balance of power here is going into a seismic shift...

[DeadZone]

Originally Posted by burp burp barf

I think you will see a civil war before too long. The balance of power here is going into a seismic shift...

What he said.

The far right are starting to get a foot hold.

[cheeseface]

Vote BNP to help stop this becoming a reality!
www.bnp.org.uk

[Star Ice Heart]

I may start looking towards the BNP myself... although they aren't my cup of tea.

[cheeseface]

You really should, try to approach them with a clear mind not being affected by the media's bias and read some of their policies, they are very common sense policies that the majority of the British public agree with ( http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-policies.html ). They actually offer a difference unlike the lib/lab/con who are virtually indistinguishable and the now essentially defunct since the ratification of the Lisbon treaty, UKIP.