The British population grew faster than that of any other major European country over the past twelve months, rising to a record 64.8 million, primarily due to net migration, new figures show. The population of Greece and Spain fell sharply.
The British population rose by 6.4 people per thousand, according to data release by the European Union’s statistics agency, Eurostat, to “celebrate” World Population Day, which is today.
Predictably, nations currently experiencing serious economic turmoil experienced an exodus. Greece’s population fell by 8 people in every thousand and Spain lost 1.6 per thousand.
Germany and France are the only two EU nations with larger populations than the UK, The Times reports, but both had slower rates of growth at 5 and 4.5 per thousand.
Furthermore, recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirm the UK population grew by more than 400,000 last year, The Daily Express reports today. On January 1, according to the ONS, 64.8million people lived in the UK, about 13 per cent, or one in eight, of all the people inside the EU.
Eurostat revealed the overall population of the EU rose to 508.2 million by the end of last year, up from 507 million at the end of 2013. Eurostat said that one fifth of the rise was because of natural growth (the difference between births and deaths) and four fifths was the result of more people coming to live in Europe.
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