The number of people in England and Wales aged 65 and over has for the first time surpassed the number of children aged under 15 [1], according to the first results of the 2021 census in a sign of how fast the population is ageing. Populations throughout Europe, including Ireland, are getting older as a demographic crisis takes hold.
The news comes only weeks after the population of Ireland was announced as 5.1 million [2], its highest level in a census since 1841.
Across the Irish Sea, a 20% surge in the number of people aged 65 and over in the past decade drove the population of England and Wales to a historic high of 59,597,300, the Office for National Statistics recorded 11.1 million people aged 65 and over compared with 10.4 million people aged under 15, tipping a balance that has always favoured the young.
The number of infants aged four and under was one of the few categories where the population fell but the over-90 population broke through the half a million mark, rising to 527,900 people.