Natural Population Will Decline From 2025, but Mass Migration Will See Numbers Soar

The UK’s Office for National Statistics has predicted that the country will see 5.6 million migrants settle in the country over the next decade, propping up a population that would otherwise be falling due to deaths outstripping births.

5.6 million people will immigrate long term to the UK, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday.

The government body also reported that it expected more deaths than births to occur in the country within the same period, meaning that the nation’s overall expected growth rate of 3.2 per cent will be entirely fueled by inward migration.

According to the released projections, while 5.6 million will come to the United Kingdom in the coming decade, 3.4 million people are also expected to leave. The balance — or ‘net migration’ — of those entering the country to live long term over the next ten years, according to the report, will therefore be 2.2 million.

James Robards of the Office for National Statistics said the figures had changed from previous estimates because they’d adjusted their assumptions of future fertility downwards, and priced in changes in mortality expectations.

“Given a higher number of deaths and fewer births are projected, net international migration is expected to play an increasing role in population growth,” Robards continued.

The news comes after it was announced in 2021 that the UK was facing a baby shortage, with fertility rates having dropped to nearly half those seen during the post-war baby boom.

Other European countries are also struggling with birth rates, with France’s having fallen to its lowest in decades in 2020.

While population growth in the UK is now to be fuelled by migration inwards, other European countries and politicians have rejected inward migration as a solution to lowering birth rates.

“I refuse to think of substituting ten million Italians with ten million migrants,” said Italy’s Matteo Salvini, who last year claimed he wanted instead to focus on introducing family-friendly policies to bump baby numbers.

Poland and Hungary meanwhile have already implemented a host of financial incentives to increase the number of children being born in the country.

Hungary’s policies in particular — which include a system of low cost loans made available to married couples with children — seem to have paid off, with birth rates rising by five per cent during the first half of 2020.