Young settle in cities while retired like to be beside the sea

In tranquil north Norfolk, for example, 30 per cent of the population are 65 or over.

By contrast in deprived Tower Hamlets, east London, the figure is just eight per cent.

The nation’s age groups are changing at sharply different rates, the figures suggest.

The number of children under six went up eight per cent between mid-2009 and mid2019, to 12.7 million. But the number of people aged 65 and over went up by 23 per cent.

The working age population – those 16 to 64 years – showed the lowest growth of any age group over this period, rising by three per cent to 41.7 million.

Researchers for the ONS – which released a map showing the average age in different areas of the country – said the decreasing numbers of births and net international migration contributed to the slow growth rate figure.

The year to mid-2019 saw the fewest births since mid-2005, at 722,000.

Net international migration of 231,000 people was 44,000 fewer than in the year to mid-2018.

Neil Park, of the ONS population estimates unit, said: “These figures highlight the variation across the UK.”

Local authority areas with the youngest populations were, on average, Oxford (28.9), Nottingham (29.7), Manchester (30.1) and Cambridge (30.3).

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● The places with the oldest residents were mainly rural or coastal areas: North Norfolk (54.3), Rother (53.1) and East Lindsey (52.4).

The City of London experienced the biggest growth in population (up 11.7 per cent), followed by Camden (3 per cent), then South

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Derbyshire, Dartford and Tewkesbury (all 2.6 per cent).

● The largest fall in the number of residents was in Oxford (down 1.2 per cent).

The biggest jumps in population since 2001 have

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been in London, with the borough of Tower Hamlets seeing a rise of 61.5 per cent.

● Outside London, the largest rise has been in Corby, Northamptonshire, where the population has gone up by 35.2 per cent.