London growing almost twice as fast as rest of England

London is projected to grow almost twice as fast as the rest of England over the next 10 years, the government's National Statistics Office (ONS) reported on Wednesday.

As well as Britain's capital city, the east of England and the southeast regions are also all projected to grow at a faster rate than the rest of the country, Xinhua cited ONS as reporting.

London is projected to grow the fastest (13.7 percent), followed by the east of England (8.9 percent) and the southeast (8. 1 percent) over the 10 year period to mid-2024.

These figures compare with the projected growth for England of 7.5 percent over the same time period.

England's northeast region is projected to grow at the slowest rate, by 3.1 percent over 10 years.

It is predicted by ONS that the population of England will grow by 4.1 million by mid-2024.

The population projections take the 2014 mid-year population estimates, which were published in 2015, as their starting point.

London's population is expected to increase by mid-2024 to 9,708,000, an increase over 10 years of almost 1,170,000.

The projected change in population in towns and cities ranges from a fall of 4.3 percent in Barrow-in-Furness, in northwest England, to a growth of 25.1 percent in the London borough of Tower Hamlets over the 10 years to mid-2024.

ONS also said the population of people aged 65 and over is projected to grow at the fastest rate compared with other age groups in every region of England.

The new statistics show the number of local authorities in England where more than a quarter of the population are aged 65 and over is projected to increase from 28 out of 326 towns and cities in mid-2014 to 84 areas in mid-2024.

Statistics expert Suzie Dunsmith, from the ONS Population Projections Unit, said: "All regions of England are projected to see an increase in their population size over the next decade, with London, the east of England and southeast projected to grow faster than the country as a whole."

"The population is also aging with all regions, seeing a faster growth in those aged 65 and over than in younger age groups."

An ONS spokesman on Wednesday said: "The primary purpose of the projections is to provide an estimate of the future size and age structure of the population for regions, local authorities and Clinical Commissioning Groups in England."

"These are used as a common framework for informing local-level policy and planning in a number of different fields as they are produced in a consistent way," he said.

--IANS

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