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Britain set to become Europe's most populated country

by Dave Keating | August 27, 2008 at 01:29 am | 152 views | 3 comments | 12 recommendations

Here's an interesting note for those in England who complain about immigration. Just a week after new population figures released in the UK showed that the population in that country is growing at quite a healthy rate, figures released for the EU as a whole show the population trend going in the exact opposite direction. In fact, it shows that because of migration, the UK is going to be the only large country in the EU with a healthy population growth rate after 2015.

The EU expects to see a big increase in pensioners in the coming decades, with only two people of working age for every person aged 65 or more by 2060.

Deaths will outnumber births in the European Union from 2015 onwards, the EU's statistical office Eurostat predicts in a new report.

By 2060, the UK is likely to have the largest population in the EU - 77 million, ahead of France and Germany.

Despite migration, the EU's population is set to fall from 2035 onwards.

An increase is expected in the next 27 years - from 495 million in January 2008 to 521 million in 2035 - but thereafter Eurostat predicts a gradual decline to 506 million in 2060.

The ratio of pensioners to working-age people is projected to increase, from 25% today in 2008 to 53% in 2060. That translates into only two people of working age for every person aged 65 or more in 2060, compared with four to one today.