LIZZY DAVIES writes in the Guardian that the population of England and Wales grew by 3.7 million people in the decade to 2011. This represents total growth of 7%, or 0.69% per year. Davies notes that “one of the most striking aspects of the census is the rise in the number of over-65s, who now make up one in six of the population of England and Wales.” She also writes that “the median age in England and Wales was 39 [in 2011] – compared with 25 in 1911”.
(The Wall Street Journal notes in a separate article by Marcin Sobczyk that much of the UK’s population growth can be attributed to new immigrants from Poland: “Poland’s own national census, published earlier this year, showed the country bleeding its permanent residents. Nearly two million Poles resided permanently outside their country in 2011, and departures over the past decade reduced Poland’s population to 36.6 million in 2011 from 37.4 million in 2002… Nearly a third of Polish emigrants lived in the U.K., the Polish census showed. Britain was much more popular for Polish expatriates than Poland’s neighbor Germany, the destination for about a fifth of Polish emigrants.”)
Lizzy Davies’ Guardian article begins here:
The population of England and Wales has grown by 3.7 million over the last decade, the biggest increase documented since census-taking began in 1801, according to new figures.
The first tranche of findings from the 2011 census illustrate how longer life expectancy, migration and higher fertility rates have caused the number of residents to boom. The figures show that the population of England and Wales on 27 March 2011 was 56.1 million compared with 52.4 million in 2001, the year of the last census. The population of northern Ireland, according to results also released today, was 1.8 million.
Although the official Scottish results will not be released until later this year, Glen Watson, director of the 2011 Census, said that, based on an estimate from earlier this year, the new figures would take the UK’s total population to 63.1 million. READ MORE.