Double impact of immigration on population

Immigration has a double impact on our overall population total and without this our population would be in decline.

Using data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS),[i] we find the following:

• The population of England and Wales has increased from 52 million in the year 2000, to 60 million in 2022.
• This is a 15% increase, equivalent to 0.7% per annum over these 22 years. At this rate, the population will double in about 100 years.
• There were 11.5 million deaths and 11 million births to mothers who had been born in the UK.
• Mothers born outside the UK but resident here now, had 3.6 million babies.
• In 2001, 16% of all births were to mothers who had not been born in the UK. in 2022 this had risen to 30%.
• Net migration totalled 4.9m, adding 225,000 to our population each year.
• So, immigration has in effect added 8.5m to the population in England and Wales over these 22 years. Without this, our total population would have remained at about 52 million, the same level as in 2000.
• It is worth noting that there were 4.2 million abortions over these 22 years, just less than the numbers added through net migration.

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[i] Parents’ country of birth: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/datasets/parentscountryofbirth

Births and deaths: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/vitalstatisticspopulationandhealthreferencetables

England and Wales population mid-year estimates: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/timeseries/ewpop/pop