Almost five million migrants are projected to come to the UK in the next seven years.

The UK population in total is projected to reach 72.5 million by mid 2032, up almost five million from 67.6 million in mid-2022.

According to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the increase is driven almost entirely by net migration, which will total 4.9 million by 2023.

The number and births and deaths is expected to stay similar, with about 6.8 million births offset by 6.8 million deaths.

However, births will increase slightly while deaths are expected to rise as well, due to a large amount of people reaching old age from the “baby boom” following WWII.

The increase is driven almost entirely by net migration

ONS head of population and household projections James Robards, said: “The UK population is projected to grow by almost five million over the next decade.

“The driver of this growth is migration, with natural change – the difference between births and deaths – projected to be around zero."

He added that the projections are based on current and past trends, but are not predictions of what may happen.

“Our latest projections also highlight an increasingly ageing population, with the number of people aged over 85 projected to nearly double to 3.3 million by 2047," he said.

“This is in part because of the ageing of the baby boom generation, as well as general increases in life expectancy.”

Other figures in the report show that England’s population is projected to grow more quickly than other UK nations until mid-2032, increasing by 7.8%, compared with 5.9% for Wales, 4.4% for Scotland and 2.1% for Northern Ireland.

The ONS also provides further future projections, covering the 25 years between mid-2022 and mid-2047, for which the total projected growth of the UK population is 8.9 million, an increase of 13.2%.

This is lower than the previous 25 years from 1997 to 2022, when the population rose by around 9.3 million, or 15.9%.

Deaths are expected to rise due to a large amount of people reaching old age from the “baby boom” following WWII

The number of people at state pension age is projected to rise by 1.7 million from mid-2022 and mid-2032, up from an estimated 12.0 million to 13.7 million people.

This projection accounts for the planned increases in state pension age to 67 for both female and male people.

Also, by mid-2032 more than one in 10 of the UK population are projected to be aged 75 and over, compared with about one in 11 in mid-2022.