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Hundreds of thousands of young people are quitting the UK to spend time abroad, the 2001 Census revealed today.

The mass exodus - put at 600,000 for all age groups by the Office for National Statistics - contrasts sharply with Britain's overall population which is getting older.

People aged over 60 outnumber under-16s for the first time and the number of over-85s has increased five-fold to 1.1 million since 1951.

Results of the multi-million pound survey, staged every 10 years, reveal the scale of the pressures which will be placed on the NHS and pension schemes by an ageing population in coming years.

The final UK population total of 58,789,194 - up 4% since 1981 - was 900,000 fewer than had been predicted.

National statistician Len Cook said this was partly because of an over-estimate in the 1991 Census, but also due to a large number of young men leaving the country.

Mr Cook said the rave culture in the Mediterranean and expansion of higher education and "gap years" may have contributed to the large number of young people who have left the UK.

"There was a migration outflow of 600,000 more than we would have thought in the last 10 years," he said.

"For the large part, that is explained by a unusually large number of young men in their 20s going abroad for a long time or for shorter periods.

"When you look at the migration statistics of the few countries that have very exacting recording processes at their borders for people coming in and out, such as Australia, you can see that borne out. Australia itself explains about 50,000 of that figure."

Mr Cook said that he "would not be surprised" if the rave culture had contributed to the high number of young migrants, particularly with large numbers of jobs available for young people in other parts of the EU.

"Growth in higher education and people going on gap years could well be an important part of it," he added.

For this year's census the ONS used new techniques to create one million fictional householders to make up for those missed by the census.

They used a new mathematical formula to predict how many had been missed and where they were likely to live - which amounted to 2% of the final figure.

Overall, the number of people complying with the census fell from 96% in 1991 to 94% last year and people in London boroughs were the worst in the country at returning their forms.

This means that census chiefs had to use their formulas to create fictional householders largely in inner city areas and some boroughs today expressed fears that the process had failed to produce an accurate picture.

Leaders of Westminster council dismissed the census as a "statistical travesty" which had massively underestimated the borough's population.

They demanded an immediate review after 64,000 people appeared to have been "lost" since estimates made last year.

Deputy leader Kit Malthouse said: "We have repeatedly told the ONS that they were in danger of underestimating Westminster's population.

"They appear not to have listened to our concerns. This is a statistical travesty.

"We will be writing to the Government demanding that more accurate and realistic figures are produced."

A spokesman for the Association of London Government said: "We are aware that there are some issues surrounding the census detail.

"It appears to affect Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea at the moment, and there is a possibility that it could have a knock-on effect on their applications for funding from central government."

But Mike Heiser of the Local Government Association said: "The 2001 Census is probably closer to being correct than the mid year estimates that preceded it, because it's based on a snapshot of 2001 rather than predictions based on data from 1991."

The survey also revealed that the number of people in the South East, the South West and the eastern counties has shot up by more than 10% in the last 20 years, while the population declined in the North East (by 5%) and North West (by 3%).

Manchester was the biggest loser with a decline of 15.1% since 1981, while the fastest growing area in England and Wales was Milton Keynes with an extra 64.4% people compared with 20 years ago.

Census results show women now outnumber men at a much earlier age than before.

It used to be the case that there were more men than women at ages up to the late 40s. However, the 2001 census shows at all age groups over 21, women are in the majority.

Eastbourne has fewest men (87 per 100 women), while Richmondshire, North Yorkshire, has the most men (107 per 100 women).

Other main points from the Census include:

:: The fastest-growing region is the South West which gained an extra 12.5% of population (547,100 people) followed by the eastern counties (11% or 534,100) and the South East (10.4% or 755,100).

:: The UK population has grown by 17% since 1951 - more slowly than the rest of the EU (23%) the USA (80%) and Australia (133%).

:: The number of people in England overall rose 2,318,000 (5%) in the last 20 years, the population of Wales grew by 89,600 (3%), while Northern Ireland showed the greatest increase over 20 years with a 9% rise. The results in Scotland showed a 2% decline in total population over 20 years.

:: The 10 most densely populated local authorities are all London boroughs, led by Kensington and Chelsea in central London with 13,244 people per square kilometre.

:: In contrast, Highland in Scotland is the least populated area of the UK with just eight people per square kilometre.

:: The London borough of Newham has the largest proportion of babies aged under 12 months (1.73%) while Christchurch in Dorset has the highest number of people of retirement age (33.1%).

:: The area with the largest proportion of over-85s is Worthing, West Sussex (4.6%).

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Hundreds of thousands of young people are quitting the UK to spend time abroad, the 2001 Census revealed today. The mass exodus - put at 600,000 for all age groups by the Office for National Statistics - contrasts sharply with Britain's overall population which is getting older.

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https://www.thoughtco.com/united-kingdoms-ageing-population-1435456

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This article looks at how politicians see the ageing population as the greatest threat to the NHS

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This article looks at how politicians see the ageing population as the greatest threat to the NHS

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-2857875/Ageing-population-NHS-issue.html

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Identify two interesting pieces of data or points from this article. You can share links to further reading here.

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The northern ticket hall of King's Cross St Pancras tube station is supposed to be a wonder of the London underground, with its expanses of gleaming floor and high-ceilinged walkways that would be wide enough for cars. In 2008, the tube's then managing director, Tim O'Toole, assured the London Evening Standard that, with the new hall, which cost £395m, "the underground station complex will ... be capable of handling all the extra demand predicted for years ahead".

It has not worked out like that. In the morning rush hour, the pedestrian tunnels are packed. Every few months, the whole complex becomes so congested that it has to be evacuated.

In big and small ways, London feels more crowded these days: parks fill to pop-festival density on every sunny weekend; West End shoppers walk in the road because there is no space left on the pavement; mobs of kerbside drinkers dwarf poky pubs in Soho; East End evenings of the most esoteric music sell out; rush hours last all day. People have complained about London overcrowding for centuries, but the current situation is new. Last year, the capital's population reached an all-time peak of more than 8.6 million. By 2050, it is forecast to be 11 million, and possibly as high as 13 million.

The UK population is growing unusually fast, too. At the present rate of progress, the Office for National Statistics expects it to swell by 4.6 million during the 2010s - "the biggest growth in the last 50 years". In 2014, the latest year for which figures are available, the UK had almost 65 million inhabitants, its greatest ever total. It is predicted to be home to more people than France by 2030 and more people than Germany by 2047, which would make this much smaller land mass the most populous country in Europe.

This accelerating change seems all the larger for being unexpected. "I don't think anybody saw the population turn coming when it started in the 90s," says Danny Dorling, a demographer and professor of geography at the University of Oxford. "In the UK, we don't tend to notice these kind of social transformations that fast."

But now we have noticed this one. Population growth has become a background anxiety, or a source of deafening acrimony, in a vast range of political and social controversies: from shortages of school places to the pressure on the NHS; from airport expansion to the housing crisis; from road congestion to the north-south divide (London and the south-east are growing faster than most other regions); from our ability to accept refugees to our approach to multiculturalism; from our low-wage economy to the state of the environment; and the most fraught domestic issue of all, immigration.

Our expanding population is almost always talked about in negative terms. "People haven't yet got to the stage of thinking about anything but the problems," says Conservative MP Damian Green, who served as minister for immigration from 2010 to 2012. "The public do sense the crowdedness," says Sir Andrew Green (no relation), the founder of MigrationWatch UK, an influential pressure group that supports the curbing of immigration. (Green was made a peer by David Cameron in 2014.) "Most people don't want a more populous country. They don't want the disturbance of large numbers of people coming. I don't think that either recent Conservative or Labour governments have focused on the scale of the increase that is coming down the track."

In 2010, a cross-party group - including the Labour MP and poverty expert Frank Field, the economic historian Lord Skidelsky and the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey - issued a " Declaration on Population". It warned that a UK population of 70 million - which will arrive about 2030, based on current trends - "would be seriously damaging to the future harmony of our society." Days later, David Cameron announced his ill-fated plan to reduce net immigration.

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Ashford's residents are divided over the town's fast growth, but planner Richard Alderton says 'there is still lots of lightly used land'. Photograph: Scott Barbour/Getty Images

But is alarm the right response to the population boom? Jonathan Portes of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research thinks not. "Population is not well discussed in Britain," he says. "Our self-image is an old and constrained country. We find it hard to be positive about population growth. But it has boosted economic growth. It has made austerity less painful, by increasing total employment and tax revenues. And congestion, pressure on services - they're considerably easier to cope with, from a collective point of view, than the opposite problems. We've forgotten what depopulation feels like."

Portes grew up in London in the 70s. The postwar baby boom was ending. The arrivals of modern contraception and feminism were making families smaller. The British economy was entering a troubled phase. Millions of manufacturing jobs were disappearing from cities. For many Britons, expectations about the future were diminishing.

Between 1975 and 1978, the UK population fell. In 1982, it dropped again. "The population of inner London fell by 20% in the 70s," says Portes. "Many people said London was basically doomed. It was going to go the way of Detroit. Inner London would become wasteland."

The idea of leaving the country became a common part of British conversations and life decisions. In the mid-70s, the number of people emigrating rose sharply. In 1974, the Labour foreign secretary, Jim Callaghan, told the cabinet, "If I were a young man, I would emigrate." Soon afterwards, Margaret Thatcher, then struggling as Tory leader, told the novelist Kingsley Amis that she was considering sending away her children to start "careers in Canada".

The consequences of depopulation could be bleak: boarded-up houses; miles of urban dereliction; dwindling investment and passenger numbers in and on public transport. Indeed, in the 70s and 80s, Londoners feared empty, potentially threatening tube carriages as much as they fear overcrowded ones today.

London's station have not always been packed with commuters, as this picture of Liverpool Street station from 1975 shows. Photograph: Evening Standard/Getty Images

In some places, despite the recovery of the population since, this emptied Britain still exists. Liverpool and Glasgow have barely half as many inhabitants now as they had at their peaks in the middle of the 20th century. This can give them an ease, freedom and affordability that southern cities lack, but there can also be something unsettling about places where so many former residents voted with their feet.

The population boom elsewhere in Britain started in the mid-90s. There were international factors: the end of the cold war, a more interwoven global economy and the expansion of the EU. British universities sought more foreign students, and Mediterranean countries began to struggle economically. Social trends contributed, too, such as the tendency for immigrants to have more children than other Britons, the introduction of IVF treatment for older women, an overall improvement in the national fertility rate, a decline in the death rate and an improvement in life expectancy. The Blair and Brown governments also provided more support for families through tax credits and better childcare facilities. The rate of population growth doubled in the 90s and doubled again in the 00s.

One of the fastest-growing communities in England in this period was Ashford in Kent. Between 1984 and 2009, this unremarkable but well-connected town - 60 miles from London, 50 miles from France - grew by 29%. Currently, Ashford has 78,000 inhabitants. "By 2030," says the council's head of planning, Richard Alderton, "we'll probably have 105,000."

It's not hard to find people in the town who think this expansion is a mistake. "This used to be marshland," says Colin Wingrave, a long-term resident, gesturing at the endless cul-de-sacs of Park Farm South, one of several suburbs of narrow, detached houses with few amenities that have been built in a confusing patchwork around the centre of Ashford. Wingrave worked in a local electronics factory until it outsourced production to Hungary; he was forced to retire two years early. He says Ashford has "more and more houses and fewer good jobs". But his objections to its growth go beyond the economic and the environmental. "It's just not right," he says. "You can't put your finger on it."

Blackhorse Road tube station in 1974. 'In the 70s and 80s, Londoners feared empty, potentially threatening tube carriages as much as they fear overcrowded ones today.' Photograph: Heritage Images/Getty Images

Alderton, who has been Ashford's planner for 27 years, says the town divides into two broad camps. "Anecdotally, people who've lived here longer look a bit askance at the town growing quite so fast," he says. "They don't like the traffic congestion and they yearn for when we used to have lots of independent shops and a cattle market. That contrasts sharply with the incoming population: young families. They realise that more people means more spending power, more leisure facilities."

The owner of the convenience store at Park Farm South is one of the latter group. He emigrated from Sri Lanka to London in the 90s and moved to Ashford six years ago. "I want Ashford to be big!" he says. "It was too quiet when I came. And I want to feel good about my town." But what about all the traffic? "It's not too bad. The schools are still OK. There are still green fields all around."

For those who argue that the UK, and the south-east of England in particular, is "full up", Ashford is an awkward case. The town centre is busy on a weekday lunchtime, but hardly overwhelmed. The foot traffic is younger and more multiracial than in less expansive Kent towns, with the occasional French accent. There is still lots of lightly used land - probably too much - occupied by former market sheds and temporary car parks. "We've succeeded in terms of population growth so far," says Alderton, summing up the council's approach. "But the town centre could do with more residents, with a bit more buzz."

There are intermittent stories in the local press about migrant stowaways arriving in Ashford from the nearby Channel tunnel, but at last year's borough elections Ukip earned an unspectacular 10% of the vote. "People complain constantly about the council's growth plans," says Damian Green, who for the last 19 years has been Ashford's MP. "But we rub along."

Beyond Ashford, too, the population boom has been going on for so long without a social meltdown that the pessimists have had to adjust their arguments. "There's a certain amount of elasticity in society," says Andrew Green. "Things don't collapse. Instead, the balloon stretches thinner and thinner." Even Green doesn't think the UK's population growth should be stopped: he favours "a steady but much lower rate of increase".

He may be being realistic. In 2011, a Royal Commission on Demographic Change and the Environment concluded: "In practice, there is little government can do to have any real effect on the size of the population over the next 40 years." The boom's causes are too interconnected and powerful - and the British state insufficiently authoritarian - for our population trends to be set by Whitehall. The commission recommended instead that governments protect the UK by "improving resource use and influencing consumption patterns".

Jonathan Portes points out that much of the UK is not crowded anyway. All population statistics are by definition slightly out of date and approximate, but while England has roughly 410 people a sq km - the second highest in the EU - Wales has only 150, Northern Ireland 135 and Scotland 70. Even heaving, stressful London is much less full of people than is widely supposed. "London is the lowest-density mega-city on the planet," says Danny Dorling. "The densest part of London is four times less dense than Barcelona, a normal, well-planned European city that Britons all want to visit."

Dorling argues that the UK's "overpopulation problem" is really the product of poor land use and social division, of corporate wage squeezes and cuts in state provision. "We've managed to organise ourselves so that much of our daily lives is crowded. We have the smallest homes in Europe. Meanwhile, there's lots of wasted space." Inner London is increasingly taken up by the huge, little-occupied homes of the super-rich and empty investors' properties - a less tatty, but in some ways more dysfunctional and depressing, form of urban emptiness than the rundown streets of the 70s and 80s. At least those had the potential to become spaces for community groups, poor immigrants or bohemians.

In the parts of London and other British cities that remain heavily populated, says Dorling, "our fear of each other makes it much harder to live together. Density is much harder when a society is very unequal. Look at Japan: it can be very dense because it's very equal". Yet, thanks to the media and popular culture, many Britons are more familiar with the space-hungry suburbs of the US and Australia than the reality of life in modest flats in Japan or Barcelona. Our aspirations often remain suburban. Meanwhile, inadequate infrastructure further amplifies our overpopulation anxieties. As Dorling says, "We have mainline railway stations with pavements outside them that are are only two metres wide."

He thinks the population panic will pass. "I find it hard to believe that we'll have this gloomy discourse on population in 20 years' time." Portes agrees: "You can build more schools and hospitals. Population redistribution is hard, but not impossible. You obviously can't plonk people in the middle of nowhere, but we built new towns in the 50s. Why not build more within commuting distance of, say, Manchester?"

Damian Green, with his recent experience as an immigration minister, is less sanguine. In Whitehall, "most of the discussions were about bringing the [immigration] numbers down. But I'd rather be in a country people wanted to come to than leave. We are a more self-confident country now than in the 70s. If we get relatively bigger [than our rivals], it will increase that." Does he think the UK has an optimum, or maximum, population? "No. If you try to guess a number, that becomes a target."

Sooner or later, Dorling points out, the current rise will go into reverse. The British economy will enter a recession and cease to be so attractive to immigrants. The Mediterranean economies will recover. Even the civil wars in the Middle East and Africa, and the resulting refugee crisis, will end. At this point, the size of the British population will depend much more on our fertility rate, which is around 1.9 children a family - one of the highest in Europe, but lower than the 2.1 needed to keep a population stable.

In the end, perhaps only two things can be said for certain about population trends. Sooner or later, they make fools of those who offer dramatic forecasts. But people will keep making them. In 1960, in the US journal Science, a paper by the distinguished physicist and philosopher Heinz von Foerster and two colleagues declared, "Our great-great-grandchildren will not starve to death. They will be squeezed to death." The paper was titled Doomsday: Friday, 13 November, AD 2026. See you in the northern ticket hall then?
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Is Britain full? Home truths about the population panic

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The northern ticket hall of King's Cross St Pancras tube station is supposed to be a wonder of the London underground, with its expanses of gleaming floor and high-ceilinged walkways that would be wide enough for cars.

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Based on the concept of 'aging in place,' design of houses in the past years are explored. Design features in the built environment become barriers for aging people with functional limitations....

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1. Main points

In 2016 the population of the UK was 65.6 million, its largest ever.

The UK population is projected to continue growing, reaching over 74 million by 2039.

The population in the UK is getting older with 18% aged 65 and over and 2.4% aged 85 and over.

In 2016 there were 285 people aged 65 and over for every 1,000 people aged 16 to 64 years ("traditional working age").

Births are continuing to outnumber deaths and immigration continues to outnumber emigration, resulting in a growing population.

Please note:

The UK population figure in the first main point was incorrectly reported as 65.5 million and has now been corrected. We apologise for any inconvenience.
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2. The UK's population is getting older - but it's not the same in all areas of the UK

The population in 2016 was at its largest ever, at 65.6 million and projected to reach 74 million by 2039. While it is growing, improvements in healthcare and lifestyles mean the population is getting older; in 2016 in the UK, 18% of people were aged 65 and over, and 2.4% were aged 85 and over.

As a result of the ageing population the old age dependency ratio (OADR) is increasing. The OADR is the number of people over 65 years old for every 1,000 people aged between 16 and 64 years old - in mid-2016 the UK's OADR was 285. It is a useful measure to understand how the balance in the population will change, particularly when planning for the needs of the different age groups.

Figure 1 shows different aspects of ageing for local authorities in the UK and compares how this changes every 10 years between 1996 and 2036. Numbers for 1996 to 2016 are based on population estimates, while numbers for 2026 and 2036 are based on population projections.

Figure 1: UK population aged 65 and over, aged 85 and over and the old age dependency ratio by local authority, 1996 to 2036

Please note:

We are aware there were some technical errors with the interactives (affecting Wales and Northern Ireland), these have been updated and are correct as of midday on 25 July 2017.

Knowing previous and projected proportions of the older age groups is interesting and useful for planning care and health provisions.

Aside from London only a few other local authorities have seen small changes in the proportion of people over 65 between 1996 and 2036. In 1996, only a handful of areas had over 25% of their local population aged 65 and over, most of these being in southern regions of the UK. By 2036, over half of local authorities are projected to have 25% or more of their local population aged 65 and over, again with many of the highest authorities being in southern England. In mid-2016 it was estimated that West Somerset was the highest at 33.3% and Tower Hamlets was the lowest at 6.0%.

When we consider those who reach over 85 years old, the proportion of this population is smaller. In 1996 there were no local authorities with more than 3% of their population aged 85 and over. In 2006, most authorities had 2% to 3% of their local population aged 85 and over. In 2016 over half of local authorities had over 3% of their population aged 85 and over. This is projected to continue increasing, with very few authorities below 3% in 2026 and below 4% in 2036. Southern authorities including Rother, East Devon and Dorset have the highest proportions, while London Boroughs such as Tower Hamlets, Islington and Hackney are consistently among the lowest with a very old population.

Between 1996 and 2016 areas with higher proportions of people aged over 65 and aged over 85 were generally found close to coastal areas throughout the UK. Projections suggest this will change and more inland areas will have higher proportions of older people too, although London and surrounding areas will remain amongst the lowest.

Similar to the proportions of older people, the OADR has been increasing since 1996 and is projected to continue increasing. In 2016 only 11 local authorities had an OADR above 500; this is projected to increase to 62 by 2026 and 157 by 2036. By 2036 some authorities' population aged 65 and over are expected to nearly match that of those aged 16 to 64, with West Somerset projected to have an OADR of 928.

The ageing population of the UK is influenced by many factors including mortality, fertility, health provisions and lifestyles.

The age distribution of the UK population is changing; Table 1 shows how this is changing for different age groups; children (aged 0 to 15 years), people who are most likely to be working (aged 16 to 64 years) and people most likely to be retired (aged 65 and over).

Table 1: Age distribution of the UK population, 1976 to 2046 (projected)

Source: Office for National Statistics

Notes:

1. Population estimates data are used for 1996 to 2016, while 2014-based population projections are used for 2026 and 2036.

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The proportion of children in the UK population has declined from over 24.5% in 1976 to 18.9% in 2016. This proportion is projected to decline even further in future years.

The proportion of people aged 16 to 64 years has remained relatively stable over the last 40 years. Over the last 10 years it has started to decline and is projected to decline further in future years. This is a result of the growth in the population aged 65 and over.

Between 1976 and 2016 there was a 3.8 percentage point increase in the proportion of people aged 65 and over. It is projected to continue to grow to nearly a quarter of the population by 2046.

Life expectancy over the last few decades has been steadily increasing. Females born in 2015 can expect to live 82.8 years from birth, 4 years more than females born in 1991. Males have seen a greater increase in life expectancy of 5.7 years, from 73.4 years for males born in 1991 to 79.1 years for males born in 2015. Life expectancy in the UK is also projected to continue increasing; with life expectancy at birth for females projected to be 85.1 years by 2026 and 86.6 years by 2036. Males are also projected to live longer, increasing to 82.1 years by 2026 and 83.7 years by 2036.

Improved healthcare and lifestyles, especially for those aged 65 and over, is the main reason for the increase in life expectancy.
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3. The European context

Figure 2 shows old age dependency ratios (OADRs) as at 1 January 2016, collated by Eurostat from the European Union (EU) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries. At this time, the UK's old age dependency ratio was 284. This was close to the OADR for all the selected European countries, which was 297. Italy (348), Greece (336) and Finland (329) have the highest ratios while Slovakia (209), Luxembourg (209) and Ireland (208) have the lowest.

Figure 2: Old Age Dependency Ratio for countries in the European Union and European Free Trade Association, 2016

Source: Eurostat

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4. The UK population is at its largest ever

The UK population is at its largest ever at 65.6 million, compared with 65.1 million for 2015, a growth rate of 0.8%. This is consistent with recent increases seen since 2005, which have varied between 0.6% and 0.8%.

Figure 3: UK population estimates and projections, 1960 to 2030

Source: Office for National Statistics

Notes:

Population estimates data are used for 1996 to 2016, while 2014-based population projections are used for 2026 and 2036.

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Following the relatively high population growth in the UK population during the baby boom of the 1960s, growth slowed during the 1970s. In the late 1980s, the population began to grow again when the 1960s baby boomers were having children, echoing earlier growth. Recent uplifts in population growth have generally coincided with an increase in the number of countries holding EU membership.

It is projected that the population will grow steadily, passing 70 million people in 2026 (Figure 3).

The interactive population pyramid (Figure 4) shows the age and sex of the population by local authority. Several events have affected the structure of the UK population in 2016, including:

there are a larger number of 69 year olds due to the spike in births after the end of World War 2, but the rapid increases in numbers of those aged 65 and over seen between 2009 and 2015 may be temporarily slowing as relatively smaller cohorts reach age 65

the effects of the 1960s baby boom can be seen in the larger number of people in their mid-40s to mid-50s and the children of the baby boomers can be seen in the higher number of people in their 20s

low fertility in the 1970s and early 2000s can be seen in lower populations of people in their late 30s and early teens

the group aged 20 to 37 years in 2016 has increased in size when compared with 2006, when they were aged 10 to 27 years; such a change can only have been generated by adding to the population through international immigration

The shape of the population by age was broadly similar for males and females in both 2006 and 2016. At older ages women outnumber men; this is particularly evident in those aged 80 and over.

The population pyramid (Figure 4) is interactive so allows you to make comparisons across 10-year periods between 1996 and 2036 for different areas in the UK.

Figure 4: Population pyramid for the UK by local authority, 1996 to 2036

Please note:

We are aware there were some technical errors with the interactives (affecting Wales and Northern Ireland), these have been updated and are correct as of midday on 25 July 2017.

Figure 4 shows that the age structure of the population can vary quite a lot between different regions. For example, in 2016 London boroughs have high proportions of young people whereas southern coastal areas have higher proportions of older people. Some neighbouring local authorities can differ greatly as well. In 2016 the profile of Southampton has large proportions of younger people, particularly aged 19 to 26 years, which differs greatly from that of the New Forest which has larger proportions of people aged around 50 and 70.
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5. What is causing the population to grow?

There are four factors that drive change in the population size; births, deaths, immigration and emigration.

Natural change is the difference between births and deaths. Over the last 60 years the number of births in the UK has been greater than the number of deaths. As a result of this natural change, the population has grown (Figure 5).

Figure 5: UK births, deaths and natural change, 1956 to 2016

Source: Office for National Statistics

Notes:

2016 data are provisional.

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The number of live births has fluctuated over the last 60 years. After the baby boom in the 1960s and the "echo" of baby boomers having children, live births in the UK began to stabilise and have generally been between 700,000 and 800,000 since the mid 1970s. Births peaked recently in 2012 reaching 813,000, the highest since 1990.

The long-term trend in the number of deaths is more stable than the number of births. The number of deaths peaked in 1976 at 681,000 (the only year since 1955 to outnumber live births) before steadily declining until 2011. This decline is because people are living longer. More recently deaths began to slightly rise again, until 2016, where deaths decreased to 597,000.

These trends can also be explored in the interactive population pyramids (Figure 4).

Natural change has seen an increase in the population but the main driver of the growing population, particularly since the 1990s, can be attributed to net migration. Net migration is the number of immigrants (people moving to the UK for more than 12 months) minus the number of emigrants (people leaving the UK for more than 12 months).

The direct effect of net migration has increased the population by more than 251,000 people on average per year from 2004 to 2016; this is an average of 52,000 more people per year than natural change for the same period (Figure 6). In addition to this direct effect of migration on the size of the population, current and past international migration also has indirect effects on the size of the population as it changes the numbers of births and deaths in the UK.

Figure 6: UK emigration, immigration and net migration, 1991 to 2016

Source: Office for National Statistics (Long-Term International Migration)

Notes:

1. 2016 data are provisional

2. Net migration estimates between 2001 and 2011 have been revised in light of the 2011 Census. Immigration and emigration estimates have not been revised and are therefore not consistent with the revised net migration estimates.

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Immigration has been higher than emigration since the early 1990s. In 2015, levels of immigration (631,000) were more than double those of emigration (298,000). The highest immigration levels to date were seen in 2014 with 632,000 people coming to the UK. Rises in immigration have tended to coincide with the expansion of the EU, allowing more people to freely migrate to the UK. Immigration has fallen with provisional data for the year ending 2016 showing immigration dropped to 588,000, while emigration increased to 339,000. Provisional data for 2016 include 6 months of data following the EU referendum; a full year of data will be published in November 2017.

As shown by the widening of the population pyramid from 2006 to 2016, migrants tend to be aged 20 to 36 years, an age when people are likely to be working.
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6. Consequences of these population changes

The population of the UK is constantly changing and is projected to continue changing in the coming decades. With lower birth rates and higher life expectancy, the shape of the UK population is transforming. Whilst longevity is something to celebrate, the proportion of those of a working age is shrinking whilst those of a pensionable age is increasing. While a larger population can increase the size and productive capacity of the workforce, it also increases pressure and questions the sustainability to provide social services such as education, healthcare and housing.
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Overview of the UK population - Office for National Statistics

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1. Main points In 2016 the population of the UK was 65.6 million, its largest ever. The UK population is projected to continue growing, reaching over 74 million by 2039. The population in the UK is getting older with 18% aged 65 and over and 2.4% aged 85 and over.

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As people have to evacuate it shows that there is an overwhelming amount of people which clearly shows the growth of population 

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As people have to evacuate it shows that there is an overwhelming amount of people which clearly shows the growth of population 

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As rush hour lasts all day this clearly shows that the population is rising alot more and alot quicker

Lydia

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How old is the UK? An Investigation into the Ageing Population of Britain

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Recent data suggests 18% of the UK population is aged 65 or over. We have conducted an investigation to find out how old the UK really is, and which areas are home to the highest proportions of the ageing population.

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Interesting Article which includes discussion around gender and aging

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Greater longevity in the UK population has led to the increasing diversity of women experiencing aging in a multitude of ways. Internationally, gender inequalities in aging are still relatively invisible within both government policy and everyday life for particular groups of women. This article explores the concept of women growing older "solo"-by which we mean women who find themselves nonpartnered and aging without children as they move into later life. We report on the findings from a mixed-methods survey of 76 solo women in the UK aged 50 years and over, used to provide a broader overview of the issues and challenges they face as they move into later life. Qualitative data from the survey captured respondents' perspectives about the links between their relationships status and well-being in later life and highlighted specific cumulative disadvantages emerging for some women as a result of their solo lifestyles. We discuss two key themes that were identified, "solo-loneliness" and "meaningful futures," in conjunction with the relevant literature and make suggestions for future research within gender and aging studies that could enhance more positive approaches to solo lifestyles.

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Going solo: Findings from a survey of women aging without a partner and who do not have children

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Greater longevity in the UK population has led to the increasing diversity of women experiencing aging in a multitude of ways. Internationally, gender inequalities in aging are still relatively invisible within both government policy and everyday life for particular groups of women.