A significant influx of migrants was the primary factor behind the considerable population increase recorded in England and Wales last year, leading to concerns about the UK’s demographic sustainability.
The National Bureau of Statistics identified 2022, 2023, and 2024 as the three years with the most substantial population growth in recent history for England and Wales.
According to official figures, 98% of this population growth stemmed from net migration, which totaled 690,147 over the reported period.
In contrast, the natural increase—calculated as the difference between births and deaths—only contributed an extra 29,982 people to the population.
This growth marks the second-largest increase since records began in 1949.
Interestingly, last year’s growth simply surpassed the numbers from the previous year, reflecting a net upward trend of 821,210 largely influenced by post-Brexit immigration policies initiated by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
This policy direction came despite public appeals for tighter immigration controls and the government’s commitment to open migration pathways.
Commenting on the statistics, ONS’s Nigel Henretty remarked that “Net International Migration continues to be a significant factor in this growth, following the long-term trend we’ve observed since the beginning of the century.”
Professor Matt Goodwin characterized these figures as a “disaster” for the UK and insisted that the government urgently needs to address large-scale migration while considering family-centric policies similar to those in Hungary, Israel, and Poland.
On a recent GB News segment, he emphasized that “this is about the survival of the country. Western nations need to shift their approach to family policy, seeing it from a survival point of view.”
Goodwin proposed that the government could offer tax benefits to families, but he emphasized that such initiatives should be reserved for British citizens, not available to foreigners.
Additionally, he pointed out housing shortages as a crucial element affecting family formation, exacerbated by limited supply and rising costs. For context, only around 124,000 new homes were completed in the UK last year, which is significantly less than the number of new migrants settling in the country.
“You can either have affordable housing here or a high number of uncontrolled immigrants, but not both. We need a political leader brave enough to communicate this to the people,” he stated.
The professor has recently raised alarms about the demographic consequences of the current immigration agenda set by both leading political factions and warned that if this trend continues, by 2063, the native population could drop to just 22.7% by 2100.
