A massive influx of migrants significantly contributed to the near record-high rise in population in England and Wales last year, leading to concerns that Britain is grappling with its own “survival.”
The leading years in modern times for population growth were 2022, 2023, and 2024 according to the Office for National Statistics, indicating that up to mid-2024, the population of England and Wales increased by 706,881, bringing the total to 61.8 million.
The state statistician reported that net migration, accounting for 690,147 individuals, was responsible for 98 percent of this population surge during that period, as noted by the BBC.
Conversely, natural population growth, which measures births against deaths, contributed only 29,982 people to the population count.
The population growth was the second-highest recorded since 1949, when official records began.
Nonetheless, last year’s increase was just behind the prior year, where the population rose by 821,210, a change largely driven by the post-Brexit immigration policies enacted by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The Johnson administration’s policy provided migration opportunities for non-EU countries and avoided setting a strict annual migration limit, despite promising cuts in immigration, as earlier Conservative governments had also not achieved.
Commenting on the data, the ONS’s Nigel Henretty said: “Net international migration continues to be the main driver of this growth, continuing the long-term trend seen since the turn of the century.”
Professor Matt Goodwin said that the figures represented a “disaster” for Britain and said that the government must halt mass migration and begin to enact pro-family policies as a matter of urgency, as is done in nations such as Hungary, Israel, and Poland.
Appearing on GB News on Wednesday evening, Prof Goodwin said: “This is about the survival of the country… The West and Western nations now need to start talking about family policy in terms of survival.”
Goodwin suggested that the government could create generous tax incentives for families, but stressed that they should only be limited to British citizens and not be accessible to foreign nationals, as are many state benefits in modern Britain.
The professor also highlighted the issue of housing as a crucial factor in family formation, attributing the supply crunch and soaring prices to mass migration. Notably, only around 124,000 houses were built in Britain last year, significantly fewer than the number of migrants admitted into the country.
“You can have affordable, available housing in this country, or you can have mass, uncontrolled immigration. You cannot have both. And we need a political leader that has the guts to stand up and say that to the British people,” he said.
Professor Goodwin has recently sounded the alarm about the demographic effects of the mass migration agenda imposed on the country by both Westminster establishment parties, producing a report last month which found that if current trends continue, the white British population will become a minority in their own country by 2063 and would fall to just 22.7 per cent by 2100.
