UK population rises by 500,000, with the average Brit getting older

THE UK population, which leapt by close to half a million people last year according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), is also getting older.
There were 491,100 more people living in the UK in 2014 than there were the previous year, an increase which the ONS describe as above average, taking the total population of the country to just under 64.6 million people.
A little over half of the increase is down to net migration, with 259,700 more immigrants living in the UK than in 2013.
What the ONS terms ‘natural growth’ – that’s the birth rate minus the death rate – accounted for 226,200 more people. Although the birth rate was down on the previous year, UK residents are living longer and so the median age of the population is now 40, the oldest the average Brit has ever been. People over the age of 65 now number 11.4 million (17.7 per cent of the total population), up from 11.1 million (17.4 per cent) in 2013.
The population breaks down between the home countries as follows: England has 54.3 million residents, and 84 per cent of the population; Scotland has 5.3 million (eight per cent); Wales 3.1 million (five per cent) and Northern Ireland 1.8 million (three per cent.)