The ONS has this morning released an overview of the UK population which finds that the direct effect of immigration has been to add an average of 250,000 to our population each year since 2004.
However, this takes no account of the indirect effect of immigration, as migrants also have children. As the ONS figures released earlier this week show, 28% of births in England and Wales in 2016 were to mothers who were born abroad.
This is why in the longer term, if net migration continues at its present 250,000 a year (very close to the ONS Population Projection ‘high migration scenario’ of 265,000 a year) then our population will grow to 77 million by 2039, three quarters of which will be due to the direct and indirect effects of migration.
Commenting, Lord Green of Deddington, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said:
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Our country is getting ever more overcrowded. With three quarters of our long-term population increase due to immigration, the government absolutely must get the numbers down and soon. The public are getting tired of excuses.“