Britain’s population growing at slowest rate for 15 years

Fewest births since 2005, figures show, as number of EU migrants drops

THE UK’S population growth is at its lowest rate for 15 years, official figures show, as immigration from the EU slumps in the wake of Brexit.

The estimated population has risen to 66.8 million, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

There were an estimated 66,796,807 people living in the country at the end of June last year.

The population growth rate over the 12 months to the middle of 2019 was 0.5 per cent, the slowest since 2004, the ONS said.

The period also saw the fewest births recorded since 2005, at 722,000.

Jonathan Portes, a professor of economics at King’s College London, said the slower rate of population growth mostly reflected the fall in net migration from the EU, which was largely driven by Brexit.

“The drivers of lower fertility [which has happened for both Uk-born and foreign-born mothers] are less clear,” he said.

“But increased pressure on household incomes from lower real-wage growth for younger groups, and cuts to benefits to low income families, are likely to play a part – particularly because they make it harder for young couples to buy a house, which, for obvious reasons, is often associated with having kids,” he added.

Prof Portes, who is also a senior fellow at UK in a Changing Europe, a research organisation focused on relations between Britain and the EU, also pointed to the “psychological impact” of Brexit. “Since the Brexit referendum, annual net EU migration has fallen by slightly more than 150,000,” he said.

“This is despite the fact that the Brexit process has been slower than anticipated, and despite the resilience of the UK labour market between the referendum and the onset of the Covid-19 crisis.

“These numbers suggest that while economic conditions remained relatively favourable, the psychological impact of Brexit on past and prospective migrants from elsewhere in the EU has been very large.”

The ONS said net international migration of 231,000 people was 44,000 fewer than in the year to mid-2018.

Neil Park, from the ONS population estimates unit, said that between the middle of 2018 and the middle of 2019 the population had grown for at the slowest rate for 15 years, due to “the lowest number of births for 14 years alongside an increase in emigration and a fall in international immigration”.

Responding to the data, Prof Len Shackleton, an editorial and research fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: “In recent years, the UK birth rate has been kept above replacement rate as a result of immigrants having markedly higher fertility rates than those born in the UK.

“With new EU migrant numbers falling, this effect will have diminished. And the rise in non-eu migration has been most marked amongst international students, who are unlikely to have babies during their stay in the country.”