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PRIVACY
Opinion

The story behind the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ's growing and ageing population - Dylan Jones-Evans

The population growth rate has slowed, but it will soon accelerate again

New population estimates for the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have been released.

They make for some fascinating reading especially as understanding the size and characteristics of our population is critical to politicians and policymakers not only in the future planning and delivery of a range of public services, such as healthcare and education, but also in supporting economic development at a local, regional and national level.

According to the ONS, whilst the population of the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ has grown to an estimated 66.4 million, the rate of growth has reduced and is now at its slowest rate for fifteen years. However, this is not expected to last and within ten years, it is expected to grow by an additional three million people.

As would be expected, population growth is not even across the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ and whilst England and Northern Ireland grew at the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ average, Wales (0.4%) and Scotland (0.2%) experienced slower growth.

Whilst the vast majority of local authority areas had experienced population growth during the last five years, 23 actually saw a reduction including four from Wales namely Ceredigion, Anglesey, Powys and Blaenau Gwent.

In fact, Ceredigion has shown the largest proportional decrease in population in the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ with a 4% decrease between mid-2013 and mid-2018.

The fastest growing city in Wales was Newport, which experienced a 4.5% increase in population over the same period followed by Cardiff (3.4%) and Swansea (2.6%) demonstrating that much of the population growth is taking place within urban locations.

But what accounts for the increases in population in the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ? According to the ONS, the change in population size is down to four main elements namely births, deaths, immigration and emigration with natural change (births and deaths) being responsible for the majority of population growth for most of the 20th century.