Immigration fuelled the biggest rise in the population in England and Wales for at least 75 years, the Office for National Statistics revealed today. The Telegraph has more.
The population rose by almost 610,000 to 60.9 million between mid-2022 and mid-2023, the biggest increase since 1949, when comparable records began.
The ONS said the growth was largely down to record levels of net migration, which stood at 622,000 for the year to mid-2023.
The impact of immigration was even more marked because of the negligible growth in the domestic population, owing to a declining birth rate and rising death rate as a result of the ageing population.
The number of births fell by 21,900 to 598,400, while the number of deaths rose by 24,000 to 598,000.
This meant the natural change in the population – the difference between births and deaths – dropped to 400, its lowest figure for 46 years.
The data follow figures released last week which showed a 34% cent fall in the number of foreign workers, dependents and students moving to the U.K. following a visa crackdown announced by Rishi Sunak last year to reduce net migration.
The figures, released by the Home Office, suggest the Government is on course to reduce immigration by 300,000 following measures including bans on foreign workers and students bringing dependents, increases in the skilled worker salary threshold from £26,200 to £38,700 and curbing shortage of occupation visa schemes.
Net migration currently stands at 685,000 for the year ending December 2023, down from a record high of 764,000 the previous year.
Labour is expected to continue with the legal migration measures introduced by the Conservatives although there is pressure for relaxation of visa controls from some within its ranks.
If you want to know why there’s a housing shortage, a crisis in public services and GDP per capita is failing to rise, look no further. The Tories did this, despite promising the complete opposite, and that’s why they lost.
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