Britain's Quiet Demographic Explosion

In the dog days of August, when few were paying much attention, came news that is pregnant with significance in more ways than one. Britain is living through a baby boom, the prime cause of a population rise of 419,900 for the year 2011-12, a level last seen in 1972. The increase in births means the UK's population is now predicted to overtake France and Germany within a few decades. This demographic surge was unexpected: economic downturns are usually accompanied by falls in fertility, as we are now seeing in the United States. Southern and Eastern Europe still have declining populations, while Germany's modest growth of 166,200 is due to immigration rather than fertility, which remains far below replacement rate. Indeed, only France and Ireland are above it.