The UK’s population passed 61 million after the largest annual increase for at least a generation, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The rise to more than 61.3 million people last year was due to a baby boom, driven partially by immigration.

For the first time in more than a decade, natural change – the difference between births and deaths – has overtaken net migration as the main influence behind population growth.

This was partly due to the highest fertility rate in more than three decades and a sharp fall in overall net immigration which dropped by 44 per cent to 118,000 last year.

There was a 28 per cent fall in the number of Eastern Europeans, including Poles and Slovakians, arriving in the UK last year while the numbers returning home increased by more than half to 66,000.

Similar Posts:

• Britain’s population to hit 74 million over next 20 years
• Three million immigrants have come to Britain since Labour came to power
• Immigration to drive up Britain’s population to 70 million within 20 years
• One in ten living in the UK is now foreign-born
• Jobless rate climbs to 2.46 million

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...