UK Population Makeup and Migration

The UK population is changing in four main categories: age, disability, ethnicity, and religion, leading to increased social hostility.

In 2020, the life expectancy was 80.9 years and is expected to increase.
The number of people over 85 is expected to double in the next 25 years, reaching 2.6 million.
Reasons include improved healthcare, better nutrition, mental health awareness, increased living standards, and delayed childbearing.
Impacts: Increased demand on the NHS and social care, more age-related conditions, and fiscal pressures due to a lower proportion of the population in work.
Caring for those aged 85 and over is expected to cost more than 3 times that of caring for those 65-75 years.

11 million people in the UK live with a disability or limiting long-term condition.
Disability increases with age, affecting over 45% of those over retirement age.
The 2021 census changed its questions to include mental health conditions, revealing a younger disabled population.
- 1.2 million people aged 10-24 in England and Wales now identify as disabled, more than double the number from a decade earlier.
Disability rates are higher in deprived areas; individuals aged 40-44 in the most deprived areas are as likely to be disabled as those aged 70-74 in the richest areas.

In the year ending June 2021, 573,000 people migrated to the UK, while 334,000 emigrated, resulting in net migration of 239,000.
6 million UK residents were foreign nationals (9% of the total population).
Push factors for emigration include war, natural disasters, discrimination, persecution, human rights abuses, and economic factors.
Pull factors for immigration include economic opportunities, education, better living standards, political stability, and greater freedoms.
Migrants categories:
- Economic migrants: move for work or economic opportunity.
- Asylum seekers: fear persecution and seek asylum.
- Refugees: well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, etc.
The UK has legal obligations to asylum seekers and refugees under the Refugee Convention 1951 and the Human Rights Act 1998.

Benefits: economic growth, specialist skills, filling labor shortages, diversity, and cultural enrichment.
Challenges: communication breakdowns, strain on public services (NHS, education, housing), job competition leading to unemployment, pressure on local services, and social/ethnic tensions.
Historical immigration sources include Polish servicemen (1945-1949), Indian immigrants (1947-1955), Windrush generation (1948-1971), Irish immigrants (1951-1961), Ugandan Asians (1972), EU expansion (1992, 2004), and Eastern Europeans fleeing persecution (1998).

Historically, UK political parties aimed for a multicultural society with harmony and respect for cultural and religious differences.
In 2011, PM David Cameron claimed multiculturalism had failed due to segregated lives, advocating for a national identity based on shared values:
- Freedom of speech and worship.
- Democracy.
- The rule of law.
- Equal rights.
Practical measures included English language requirements, British history classes, National Citizenship Service, and voluntary work encouragement ('Big Society').