Intergenerational replacement and migration in the UK

Populations can grow in two ways - either through a surplus of births over deaths or because there is net immigration. Most demographic analysis focuses on one or other of these two dimensions, fertility or migration. However, it is possible to assess the combined impact of the two processes on the size of a population. New research from the ESRC Centre for Population Change does exactly that and assesses the extent to which migration alters intergenerational replacement within the United Kingdom.

The research, published in the latest issue of Population Trends finds that when looking at the UK as a whole it can be seen to experience "replacement migration" as immigration compensates for fertility below that is the replacement level. However, the research finds that the impact of migration differs radically in the different regions of the country. Notably, South East England experiences very substantially immigration from both the rest of the UK and overseas, far more than is needed for intergenerational replacement, whereas most of the rest of the UK sees little or no net immigration and the overall replacement ratio remains below the replacement level.

Read more about this here in the CPC Briefing Paper on this work.

Read the full article published in Population Trends here.

Posted 22/09/2011 11:56