What Britain will look like in 2036

A new forecast throws light on how the country will change

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My daughter is two years-old. She’s already lived through three prime ministers, four chancellors, two monarchs, a global pandemic, and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. What will she live through in the years ahead, I often wonder?

It’s a question most parents ask themselves. And it’s one I asked myself again yesterday while reading a new forecast on how Britain’s population will change over the next twelve years —which is not a very long time at all.

The forecast, from the independent Office for National Statistics, is striking to say the least. And I suspect many people out there in the country, many of the people who are perhaps reading this Substack, will find it deeply worrying.

By the year 2036, by the time my daughter turns fifteen, Britain’s population will have grown by another 6.6 million people. In just fifteen years, in just three election cycles, the population will surge by 10 per cent, rising from 67 million people to nearly 74 million. And of the additional 6.6 million people in the country —another 6.6 million people using the NHS, the GPs, the schools, the roads, and looking for a house to buy or rent— some 6.1 million will be here because of immigration.

Let’s look in detail at how Britain’s population will change over the next decade, including some completely mind-boggling statistics from the latest forecast.