A new population explosion?

According to a new report for the Office of National Statistics, the UK is about to enter a period of very rapid population growth. After decades of slow rates of growth, new predictions suggest that our population might grow by as much as 4.5 million in the next 9 years. This would bring our population to 65 million by 2016.

As the graph on the left indicates, almost half of that increase will result from immigration. There is a good account of the report on the BBC website today (click graph to link) which examines the possible impact which the increases would have on the infrastructure and social services in Britain. It also makes reference to the new debates about controls on immigration which are erupting on the political scene.... this at a time when migration rates are set to rise.

I am old enough (just!) to remember the reverberations of Enoch Powell's 'Rivers of Blood' speech about immigration back in the late 1960s and so I will be watching with interest what the government and organisations like Migrationwatch and Optimum Population Trust have to say about these new figures.