Smallest rise in population for 17 years

THE UK population may have grown by just 0.5% in the year to mid-2020 – the lowest since 2003.

Early indications from the Office for National Statistics suggest a figure of 67.1million, up by 316,000 on the official estimate for mid-2019.

Total UK net migration for the period was 282,300.

But patterns from the start of the pandemic showed a “notable change due to the impact of travel restrictions”, with negative net migration of around 50,000 for April to June.

Madeleine Sumption, of the University of Oxford, described the apparent switch from years of positive net migration to negative as “extraordinary”.