The population of the UK reached 64.1 million last year, in a pace which has made it the fastest growing in Europe.
For the last decade, Britain has been growing twice as fast as the rest of Europe, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
Britain now is the third most populous nation in Europe after Germany (81.9 million) and France (63.6 million for metropolitan France and 65.6 million when its overseas territories are included).
Overall the UK’s population grew by just over 400,000 last year to 64.1 million, according to the official annual estimate.
Just over half of the growth was accounted for by natural change - births minus deaths - while net migration represented 46% of the rise.
Since 2001, five million have been added to the population. Previously, an increase of five million took 37 years.
New arrivals into Britain have helped push up the numbers.
“Since 2001 there have been high levels of net inward migration, adding to the population at younger working ages,” the ONS explained.
“In part this was driven by the expansion of the European Union in 2004 and 2007.
“This period has also seen an increasing number of births, driven by both the immigration of women of childbearing age and rising fertility among UK-born women.”
There has been an increase in the number of babies born to British mothers, with about one quarter of births last year being to foreign mothers.
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