The population of the UK is growing at a faster clip than any other EU country, according to Eurostat.
The statistic is the absolute numbers of people.
The increase is nearly three times the average in the EU due in large part to Britain’s high birth rate.
There were 392,600 more people in the UK in 2012 than had been there the previous year, making the total population number 63,888,000.
Immigration accounted for 38% or 148,700 people of the increase. The remainder were from ”natural change”. During the year 243,000 more babies were born than people died.
Live births introduced 813,000 babies to Britain. This was the second highest birth rate in the EU after the arrival of 822,000 French babies.
France ended 2012 with 305,500 more people than it lost. Its total population now stands at 65,633,200.
In Germany the number of people who died in 2012 was greater than the arrival of babies by almost 200,000.
But Germany received far more immigrants than Britain. Germany accepted 391,000 and Italy was not far behind with 369,000 migrants compared to less than 149,000 who entered the UK.
Without immigration, the EU’s total population would be stagnant or in decline: it grew by just over one million people in 2012, of whom 882,000 were migrants.
Population declines were noted in some countries because of struggling economies and lack of jobs.
Emigration was highest in Ireland during 2012, where 35,000 people left the country. High rates of emigration were also recorded in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Greece, Portugal, and Spain.
