England and Wales population growth hits 75-year high

Record immigration will cause the population of England and Wales to rise by 610,000 to 60.9 million by mid-2023, official figures show, the biggest annual increase in 75 years.

What statisticians call “natural” population growth – the difference between births and deaths – fell to just 400, the lowest level since 1978, while net international migration rose to 622,000 from 548,500 in the previous 12 months.

A further 13,800 people moved from England and Wales to Scotland or Northern Ireland.

The Office for National Statistics said England and Wales had its biggest population increase since 1948, with a post-World War II baby boom and the return of British soldiers who served overseas adding 1.5 million people.

The population of the entire UK was 67.6 million in mid-2022. Figures for 2023 have not yet been released.

Economic output has failed to keep pace with population growth. According to provisional population figures, GDP per capita fell by 0.7% in 2023 from the previous year.

Net migration to the UK is set to reach a record 764,000 in 2022, before falling 10% to 685,000 in 2023, but the figure is more than double that of 2015, before the Brexit referendum.

Reducing immigration was a key goal of many Britons who voted to leave the European Union.

Britain’s previous Conservative government said it wanted to reduce net immigration, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party also promised during its election campaign to make the economy less dependent on foreign workers to achieve that goal.

Post-Brexit changes to visa policy have drastically reduced the number of EU migrants coming to the UK, but new work visa rules have led to a surge in arrivals from India, Nigeria and Pakistan, often to fill vacancies in health and social care.

Late last year, the government tightened rules to ban low-paid social care workers from bringing in family members.

Meanwhile, Starmer recently confirmed that the new government would not follow the policy of his predecessor Rishi Sunak to deport asylum seekers arriving in Rwanda on small boats, and would end the scheme before flights take off.

“Rwanda’s plan was dead before it began. It never worked as a deterrent,” Starmer told a news conference. “I am not prepared to continue using gimmicks that are not a deterrent.”