Annual deaths across the UK surpassing births, records reveal.

Through the possible exception of the Covid crisis, deaths have surpassed births in the UK each year for the first time in almost 50 years, according to recent official statistics.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), there were 16,300 more deaths than births in the year ending in June 2023. Deaths were more than births in Scotland and Wales, but not by a significant amount in England and Northern Ireland.

The population of the UK continued to rise at the fastest rate since the early 1970s, with net migration accounting for the majority of this growth in all four nations.

For the year ending in mid-2023, net international migration—the difference between the number of individuals entering and departing the UK—is projected to be 677,300.

Statistics indicate the UK’s population would have decreased in the absence of that net migration statistic.

As per Downing Street, Sir Keir Starmer has expressed “clearness that overall net migration does need to come down” and the government is planning to “end the situation where legal migration is used as an alternative to tackling skill shortages in the UK”.

In the year ending in June 2023, Scotland had 19,000 more deaths than births, while Wales had 9,500 more.

In comparison, Northern Ireland had 2,500 more births than deaths, while England had 9,800 more than deaths.

According to the ONS, the population increased by 662,400, or 1%, to an anticipated 68,265,200 persons in the year leading up to mid-2023.

Figures indicate that the UK’s population would have decreased in the absence of that net migration statistic.

As per Downing Street, Sir Keir Starmer has expressed “clearness that overall net migration does need to come down” and the government is planning to “end the situation where legal migration is used as an alternative to tackling skill shortages in the UK”.

In the year ending in June 2023, Scotland had 19,000 more deaths than births, while Wales had 9,500 more.

In comparison, Northern Ireland had 2,500 more births than deaths, while England had 9,800 more than deaths.

With the exception of the 2020 Covid pandemic year, these numbers indicate that the UK saw a negative natural change in population for the first time since 1976. The ONS noted that rather than using mid-year data, the 1976 results were based on year-end data.

According to the ONS, the population of the UK as a whole increased by 1% in the year ending in June 2023, marking the highest annual percentage growth since the start of the present series of mid-year estimates in 1971.It follows a growth of 0.9% in the year to mid-2022.The ONS stated that as more data become available and estimates of

international migration continue to be improved, all population estimates are probably going to be changed within the next year.

According to a specialist who spoke with the PA news agency, the negative natural development is “not unexpected” given the low birth rate and the sizable post-war birth cohort that is now reaching old age after leading longer lives.

“As this generation of older adults ages and passes away, we anticipate a higher annual death toll,” said Professor Sarah Harper, head of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing.

According to other data issued in May, net migration to the UK was predicted to be 685,000 in the year ending in December 2023, down from 764,000 in the year ending in December 2022, but still more than three times greater than in 2019.

Net migration “remained at unusually high levels” in May, according to the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory.

The prime minister’s spokesperson responded to today’s statistics by stating that stricter regulations will be implemented on migrant sponsorship “to ensure employers guilty of flouting employment laws are banned from hiring from abroad.”

The outgoing Conservative administration said before the general election that the decline in net migration proved their strategy of lowering the number was effective.

Based on the most recent data, England and Wales (both at1%) saw higher population growth in the year leading up to mid-2023 than either Scotland (0.8%) or Northern Ireland (0.5%).

For England, Wales, and Scotland, this was the greatest annual growth rate since comparable records started in 1971; for Northern Ireland, it was the highest since mid-2019.

According to an ONS estimate from January, net migration will likely contribute to the UK’s population growth, which might reach roughly 74 million by 2036.

According to ONS statistics, there will be 6.1 million net migrants, around 500,000 more births than deaths, and an extra million individuals in the UK who are 85 years of age or older by 2036.