Immigration Drove Fastest Population Increase Since 1971: ONS

The UK population increased to an estimated 68.3 million and the main driver was net immigration, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said. According to the ONS’s latest statistical bulletin published on Tuesday, the population grew by 1.0 percent in the year to June 2023, the largest annual percent increase since comparable data collection began in 1971. Some 68,265,200 people were resident in the UK to the middle of last year, up 662,400 from 67,602,800 in mid-2022—which itself is also the biggest annual numerical increase since 1971. In the year to June 2023, 1,185,600 people immigrated to the UK and 508,300 people left the country, leaving net international immigration—those entering minus those leaving—at 677,300, the figure being what the ONS described as the “main contributor to population increase” across all four countries....