The population is increasing and there are more older people – that will bring a number of fresh challenges

The latest census figures show that the population of England and Wales has increased by 6.3 per cent during the last decade. According to the Office for National Statistics, there are now 59.6 million people living in the two countries.

The last census, published in 2011, revealed a rise of 7.8 per cent on the 10 years before that. While the rate of increase may have slowed since, the direction of travel continues to point upward, as it does for many other countries across the world.

What to make of such news? Looking past the obvious impacts that a swelling global population is having on the environment around us – mass deforestation, growing eutrophication and rising temperatures, to name but a few – here in the UK, the government will face a number of fresh challenges as it grapples with the effects of a changing population.

Firstly, we simply don’t have enough available homes for the number of people living in the UK. It’s difficult to put a precise number on the amount of new housing needed, but we have the data to highlight the consequences of these shortages.

Research from the housing charity Shelter, published last year, found that 1.5 million people in England were living in overcrowded social homes – an increase of 44 per cent on the previous five years. As of June 2021, one in six residents were living in an overcrowded home, with experts fearful that these figures are only going to worsen.

Healthcare is another obvious aspect of British society that has suffered as a result of overpopulation. The Covid-19 pandemic has, of course, exacerbated matters, but even before the onset of Covid-19, the pressures were undeniable.

In September 2019, an estimated 4.37 million in England were waiting for some type of NHS treatment – a figure that has since jumped to 6.4 million.

Hospital bed availability has become particularly squeezed. Compared to other nations, the UK has a very low total number of hospital beds relative to its population. The average number of beds per 1,000 people in OECD EU nations is 4.6, but the UK has just 2.4, research shows. Such pressures have also been exacerbated by the simple fact that our population is getting older with each passing decade.

The latest census data show there are more elderly people in England and Wales than ever before, placing ever-greater strain on the NHS. In 2021, the proportion of the population who were aged 65 years and over was 18.6 per cent, up from 16.4 per cent in 2011.

Those in the NHS will rightly point out that the money and resources haven’t been provided by successive governments to accommodate an ever-growing population, but there’s no doubt that, in its current state, our health service won’t have the capacity needed to meet demand as more and more of us face aged-related health issues in the future.

But it’s not just heath and homes. Our infrastructure, from roads to sewage systems, is creaking amid overuse and insufficient funding; our cities are sucking in more and more of the working population, becoming bloated and unliveable; our green spaces are vanishing in front of our eyes, replaced instead by tarmac and brick and mortar.

Without population growth, how can we expect a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) to increase – but we need to be aware of the thought needed to tackle the myriad of challenges such growth brings.