London, August 27: Britain;’s population biggest increase in almost half a century, pushing the number of people living here above 61 million for the first time. A baby boom was the key factor.
There were 408,000 more people living in the UK last year than in 2007, according to the Office for National Statistics. It was the biggest increase in a single year since 1962, taking the total population to 61.4 million. There are now 2 million more people living in Britain than there were eight years ago.
The primary factor in this increase was not immigration but instead the nation’s fertility rate, which reached its highest level for 15 years. Women in their thirties and forties had more babies, there was a significant rise in births among first-generation immigrants and the popularity of IVF treatment also contributed, academics said.
–Agencies