The UK population has hit a new high of 69.5million but the rate of growth has slowed significantly, official figures show.

The drop-off was due to falls in net migration, which has declined rapidly since hitting record levels in 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS)

There were an estimated 69,483,939 people living in the UK in mid-2025, up by 227,665 on the previous 12 months.

It represented a rise of 0.33 per cent – the lowest annual rate of increase since 1998, excluding the pandemic-affected year of 2020.

Much larger jumps in population have been seen in other recent years, including 1.05 per cent in 2022, 1.34 per cent in 2023 and 0.97 per cent in 2024.

The ONS said most population growth is down to net migration, the difference between the number of migrants arriving in the UK and those emigrating.

Net migration was estimated at 222,900, the latest data showed, down steeply from 651,700 in the previous 12 months, thanks largely to a series of visa restrictions introduced by the previous Conservative government in spring 2024.

The Office for National Statistics said the slowdown in population growth was due to falls in net migration, which has dropped rapidly since hitting record levels in 2023

Some 652,400 births took place in the year to mid-2025, the lowest for more than four decades, the ONS said.

There were 647,500 deaths over the same period, meaning natural change – the difference between births and deaths – contributed an increase to the UK population of only 4,900.

The four countries of the UK are showing different population trends, with Wales seeing its first drop for a decade, Scotland and Northern Ireland experiencing almost no growth and only England showing a small increase. 

Projections published earlier this year by the ONS suggested the UK’s population will peak more than 40 years earlier than previously thought.

It calculated the number of people living in the country will hit a high of 72.5million in 2054, and then begin to fall.

Its previous estimates suggested the UK peak would not arrive until 2096.

Within that UK-wide total, changes in the ONS’s calculations mean it now expects the first ever peak – and decline – in England’s population.

Previous sets of data compiled by the official statistics body had forecast that the number of people living in England would continue to increase for at least the next century.

But now it is forecasting it will hit its highest point of just over 62million in 2056, before beginning to fall.

For other nations in the UK their predicted population peaks have been brought forward.

The ONS expects Wales’ population to peak in 2035, rather than in 2077.

Scotland’s population will reach its highest level just seven years from now, in 2033, rather than in 2051 as previously estimated.

And Northern Ireland’s population will peak two years earlier, in 2031.

The changes are due to a combination of slowing net migration and births outnumbering deaths.

The earlier projections set out how the UK population is set to grow more slowly than previously thought over the next few years.

It is forecast to climb from 69.3million in 2024 to 71million in 2034 – 1.2million lower than previously forecast, mainly due to the significant dip in net migration.