Keir Starmer nightmare as migration pushes UK population over 69m with 775k jump in 1 year
Keir Starmer has overseen an enormous rise in the UK population for yet another year running.
Britain’s population has shot up yet again (Image: Getty)
Migration fuelled another jaw-dropping increase in Britain’s population, as new figures show the the number of people in the country grew by more than three-quarters of a million last year.
Some 1,235,254 people moved to the UK in the 12 months to June 2024 while 496,536 emigrated.
This accounted for 98% of the UK’s overall increase in population across this period.
The ONS revealed this morning that the population grew by 755,254 in the year to June 2024, the second-highest year on record.
Most of this was due to immigration, with only a small proportion of around 16,000 accounted for by births.
This brings the UK population to 69.3 million, up by 1.1% on last year.
Only the year 2022 to 2023 breaks this record, with an even higher 890,049 seen during the Boriswave.
Nigel Henretty of the ONS said: “The UK population has increased each year since mid-1982.
“The rate of population increase has been higher in recent years, and the rise seen in the year to mid-2024 represents the second largest annual increase in numerical terms in over 75 years.
“Net international migration continues to be the main driver of this growth, continuing the long-term trend seen since the turn of the century.”
Keir Starmer is under pressure to slash net migration (Image: Getty)
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “Keir Starmer has lost control of our borders.
“Immigration at this level is a disgrace and must end.
“It is stressing housing and public services, is breaking social cohesion and is actually bad for the economy.
“The first eight months of this year were the worst in history for illegal immigrants crossing the channel.
“And Starmer continues to allow legal migration at unacceptably high levels having cancelled our plans to raise the family visa threshold to £38,000.
“We urgently need a hard annual cap on legal migration at very low levels, and we must deport every illegal immigrant immediately upon arrival.”
The ONS has previously predicted the population will surge to 72.5 million – up from 67.6 million – by 2032, heaping more pressure on the NHS, housing, roads and schools.
Almost ten million people are expected to move to the UK between 2022 and 2032, with five million anticipated to leave over the same period.
Statisticians at the ONS predicted net migration will settle at 340,000 per year from 2028.
But this could be higher, with current levels soaring at 728,000.
This is down from a record high of 906,000 in June 2023.
Migration will account for “the entirety of the population growth” as the difference between births and deaths is “projected to be around zero”.
England’s population is projected to grow more quickly than other UK nations in the decade to mid-2032, increasing by 7.8%, compared with 5.9% for Wales, 4.4% for Scotland and 2.1% for Northern Ireland.
The ONS also provides a projection further into the future, covering the 25 years between mid-2022 and mid-2047, for which the total projected growth of the UK population is 8.9 million, a jump of 13.2%.
This is lower than the previous 25 years from 1997 to 2022, when the population is estimated to have risen by 9.3 million, or 15.9%.
