Population a record high but it’s slow growing

SCOTLAND’S population has grown to a record 5.42million – a rise of more than 20,000 in a year.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show 5,424,800 people living north of the Border as of June of last year, up from 5,404,700 the previous year.

However, the country had the lowest growth rate in the UK, with a rise of only 0.37 per cent between 2016 and 2017. Overall, the UK’s population surged past 66million people, an increase of 392,000 since mid-2016.

The figures show 41 per cent of the UK growth occurred from natural change – births and death – while the rest came through net international migration.

An increase of 2,700 people also came through the armed forces population based in the UK. In Scotland there are almost 978,000 over-65s, making up 8.15 per cent of the 12million UK residents aged 65 and over in mid-2017.

Although the total population in the UK has grown since 2016, it marks the lowest annual growth since 2004.

ONS figures earlier this year showed that net migration to the UK from the EU in the year to September 2017 fell below 100,000 (90,000) for the first time in more than four years – and down from an estimated 165,000 the previous year. The Migration Statistics quarterly bulletin for this period noted: ‘The number of people immigrating [to come to] a job remained stable.’

But it added: ‘There has been a 43 per cent decrease in the number of people immigrating to look for work over the last year, especially for EU citizens... Brexit is likely to be a factor in people’s decision.’

The ONS’s Neil Park said: ‘The population is still growing faster than at any time since the post-war baby boom.’