- LONDON: British officials say that the country’s population jumped about half a million last year, the highest annual growth rate in nearly 50 years.
Figures released by Britain’s Office for National Statistics show that the population stood at 62.3 million in the year leading up to mid-2010, up on 61.8 million the year before.
Population figures can be political in Britain, an island nation with highly charged attitudes toward immigration.
Britain’s Conservative-led government has pledged to clamp down on what it calls “uncontrolled migration” — a phenomenon it partially blamed for the population boost Thursday.
Government statisticians say most of the population growth is down to so-called “natural change,” or the difference between births and deaths.
