Latest news with #populationgrowth
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Spotlight on Growing Michigan in 2025
On Sunday, June 1, Spotlight on the News will interview Hilary Doe, the Chief Growth Officer for the State of Michigan. What's her plan for increasing population in the Great Lakes States? Is it working? If so, what's Michigan's fastest growing area?
Daily Mail
13 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
England's yellow and parched land: How soaring immigration and a 30-year failure to build reservoirs could trigger drinking water crisis
Just over 200 years ago, William Blake wrote of England's 'great and pleasant land' in the poem that would later be set to music as the hymn Jerusalem. Fast forward to the 21st century and the green and pleasant land, and its people, are in danger of becoming parched. This week ministers admitted that the country could run out of drinking water within 10 years as they unveiled plans to fast-track the building of two new reservoirs. Astonishingly, they will be the first new man-made bodies of water created for human consumption in more than three decades. There are fears that, without action, demand for drinking water could outstrip supply by the mid-2030s due to rapid population growth, crumbling assets, Nimby opposition and a warming climate. And that population growth is set to be fuelled by immigration. The UK population is projected to reach 72.5 million by mid-2032, up 4.9 million from 67.6 million in mid-2022, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The jump of 4.9 million is projected to be driven almost entirely by net migration, with natural change – the difference between births and deaths – projected to be around zero due to the aging population. Beyond 2032, the population is projected to continue to grow and pass 75 million in 2041. Writing for Mail Online today, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: 'Water doesn't lie. It's a basic test of whether a country can support the people in it, and Britain is failing that test because Labour refuses to confront reality. 'The only serious solution is to tackle immigration head-on. 'We cannot keep adding the pressure and pretending the system will hold. We cannot build our way out of a problem we refuse to name. Until we slash migration numbers, the shortages will only get worse.' Last week, official figures showed net migration to the UK had halved to 431,000 last year compared with 860,000 across January to December 2023. This was after reaching a record high of 906,000 in the 12 months to June 2023. But although net migration is predicted to continue to fall in the years to come, the home-grown population is predicted to also shrink, as deaths outweigh births. It means that while the rate of population growth may slow, it is expected to inexorably climb. While politicians have long claimed immigration will have an impact on services such as housing, schools and the NHS, where everyone will get their drinking water has remained largely out of the spotlight until now. In England this year, the North West and North East both saw their driest start to a calendar year since 1929, while the country as a whole endured its driest February to April period since 1956. On Thursday The Environment Agency (EA) said Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire, and Cumbria and Lancashire, moved from 'prolonged dry weather' to 'drought' status. Water companies in England have committed to bringing new reservoirs online, in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Suffolk, Kent, East Sussex and the West Midlands, with the potential to supply 670 million litres of extra water per day. But they are not expected to be ready until 2050. The Fen Reservoir project between Chatteris and March in Cambridgeshire is set to supply 87 million litres a day to 250,000 homes, and to be completed in 2036. The Lincolnshire reservoir south of Sleaford would provide up to 166 million litres a day for up to 500,000 homes, operational by 2040. It is the latter two that ministers have now designated as 'nationally significant', taking planning responsibility out of the hands of local politicians in order to streamline and fast-track them. Speaking to Times Radio Environment Minister Emma Hardy said: 'We've been in an infrastructure crisis because we haven't built the reservoirs that we need. 'In fact we built no reservoirs for the past 30 years. If we don't take action we are going to be running out of the drinking water that we need by the mid-2030s. 'This is why the Government's taking unprecedented action to make these reservoir projects... into projects that are nationally significant projects. 'This means the planning process is taken away from the local authority. The power is put into the hands of the Secretary of State... to make sure that we deliver them. 'It means that we can unlock tens of thousands of new homes and we can make sure that everybody has the drinking water that they desperately need.' A lack of water supplies is also holding back the construction of thousands of homes in parts of the country such as Cambridge, officials have warned. Labour has a target of building 1.5 million new homes by 2029. But demands from migrant-fueled population growth is not the only problem. Last year a report by the Environment Agency found that almost a fifth (19 per cent) of water supplies are lost by water companies before reaching customers' taps. This figure was down 10 percentage points since 2018 but the agency said By 2050, in order to support a growing population, the economy, food production and protect the environment, an extra five billion litres of water will be needed every day. Andy Brown, its water regulation manager, said: 'Drought is a naturally occurring phenomenon. As we see more impacts from climate change heavier rainfall and drier summers will become more frequent. This poses an enormous challenge over the next few decades. Prof Hayley Fowler, professor of climate change impacts at the University of Newcastle, said the dry and drought conditions the UK was experiencing were consistent with what was expected from climate models, especially in the summer months. 'With global warming we expect more prolonged and intense droughts and heatwaves punctuated by more intense rainfall, possibly causing flash floods. 'In recent years, we have experienced more of these atmospheric blocks, causing record heat and persistent drought,' she said. 'We are a northern European nation not short of rain ... this should be a wake-up call for the government, says Chris Philp This week, ministers admitted that parts of Britain could run out of drinking water within a decade. Let that sink in. We are a northern European nation not short of rain. We are certainly not an arid and sandy desert land. Yet apparently we can't guarantee water will come out of the tap. This should be a wake-up call for the government. And we know what drives demand for water: people do. So it is very relevant that for decades the British people have demanded, and politicians have promised, dramatically lower immigration. But for decades, successive governments, including the last one, have failed to deliver that. That failure has undermined faith and trust in democracy itself. It is now time to actually deliver what the public want. Under new leadership, the Conservative Party has recently brought forward a number of serious, credible and detailed plans to tackle immigration - all of which Labour voted against in Parliament in the past few weeks. While homes go unbuilt, schools burst at the seams, and A&Es overflow, Labour's answer is to import more people and deny there's even a problem. The Home Secretary admitted Labour's plans will only bring down net migration by microscopic 50,000 a year - nowhere near enough of a reduction. It is no surprise the Labour Government is failing to take action – Starmer once absurdly claimed immigration puts no strain on public services. Tell that to the families in waiting for a doctor's appointment, to the councillors facing impossible housing targets, or to the water companies now forced to warn that we may not have enough to go round. The government's target of building 300,000 homes per year would only cover net migration at 170,000 per year. Instead, Labour's housebuilding target could result in five out of seven new homes going to migrants. What about the British people who want to get on the housing ladder? Naturally, more people means more demand for water. Every person who arrives needs showers, sinks, sanitation. The more pressure we put on the network, the faster it fails, and the harder it becomes to plan or build for the future. And Labour's solution has not been to tackle the influx but rather to crush any local objections and build two giant reservoirs for 10 and 15 years' time. When the Conservatives recently brought forward a plan to slash immigration Labour torpedoed it using their huge Parliamentary majority. We put forward measures to implement automatic deportations of foreign criminals and illegal migrants; to end the human rights madness that stops us controlling our borders; and to create a binding annual cap on migration which is much, much lower than the numbers we have seen in recent years. Water doesn't lie. It's a basic test of whether a country can support the people in it, and Britain is failing that test because Labour refuses to confront reality. The only serious solution is to tackle immigration head-on. We cannot keep adding the pressure and pretending the system will hold. We cannot build our way out of a problem we refuse to name. Until we slash migration numbers, the shortages will only get worse.
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Indicators 2025: Demographic trends in Northeast Pennsylvania
Jun. 1—WILKES-BARRE — Jill Avery-Stoss, president of The Institute, said this week that although all three counties — Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wayne — reported population dips in 2021, they have since rebounded. "The region collectively gained nearly 5,700 residents between 2013 and 2023," Avery-Stoss said. "Notably, migration patterns shifted post-2020, with all three counties reporting net migration gains, especially in 2020 — 2021. These trends reflect broader national movements away from high-cost urban areas." According to Avery-Stoss, the stability of the population has relied on in-migration rather than births. She said birth rates across the region have been declining steadily for decades. This trend mirrors national patterns and is influenced by younger generations opting for fewer or no children. "In-migration refers to the relocation of people to the region, from other communities within the Commonwealth, from other states, and from other countries," Avery-Stoss said. "It enhances diversity in the area. The Hispanic/Latino population has grown significantly, especially in Luzerne County. Increases were also recorded among Asian Americans, African Americans, and multiracial individuals." Avery-Stoss said diversity is an asset because it fosters economic growth and resiliency — it offers new perspectives and greater exposure to various cultures. "It is essential to the workforce, small business development and overall community vitality," Avery-Stoss said. "Research suggests that, for these reasons, diverse populations are best equipped to withstand complex challenges." Avery-Stoss said NEPA is also known to have an aging population — a sizable proportion of residents are over the age of 65. In 2023, Avery-Stoss said more than 20% of residents in the studied counties were seniors, and less than 11% were under age 10, highlighting potential future labor shortages and high demand for health care and support services. Additionally, Avery-Stoss said the number of older adults living alone has grown, with the region adding nearly 1,000 such individuals from 2020 to 2023. "This trend aligns with the desire of older adults to 'age in place' — ideally residing in the safety and comfort of their own homes rather than entering long-term care facilities," Avery-Stoss said. Despite these population shifts, Avery-Stoss said average household sizes in the region have remained stable. There has been an increase in single-parent households, however — particularly those led by women — in Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties. At the same time, Avery-Stoss said there has been a slight decline in the number of grandparents raising grandchildren. In Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties, the number of grandparents raising their grandchildren decreased between 2020 and 2023 (by 123 and 6, respectively). During the same period, Wayne County's number rose by 73. "Northeastern Pennsylvania is experiencing gradual, but important, demographic changes," said Avery-Stoss. "The population is aging, birth rates are declining, and diversity is increasing. Monitoring these demographic indicators should help shape policies and design public services that meet the unique needs of the community." Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Indicators 2025: Demographic trends in Northeast Pennsylvania
Jun. 1—WILKES-BARRE — Jill Avery-Stoss, president of The Institute, said this week that although all three counties — Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wayne — reported population dips in 2021, they have since rebounded. "The region collectively gained nearly 5,700 residents between 2013 and 2023," Avery-Stoss said. "Notably, migration patterns shifted post-2020, with all three counties reporting net migration gains, especially in 2020 — 2021. These trends reflect broader national movements away from high-cost urban areas." According to Avery-Stoss, the stability of the population has relied on in-migration rather than births. She said birth rates across the region have been declining steadily for decades. This trend mirrors national patterns and is influenced by younger generations opting for fewer or no children. "In-migration refers to the relocation of people to the region, from other communities within the Commonwealth, from other states, and from other countries," Avery-Stoss said. "It enhances diversity in the area. The Hispanic/Latino population has grown significantly, especially in Luzerne County. Increases were also recorded among Asian Americans, African Americans, and multiracial individuals." Avery-Stoss said diversity is an asset because it fosters economic growth and resiliency — it offers new perspectives and greater exposure to various cultures. "It is essential to the workforce, small business development and overall community vitality," Avery-Stoss said. "Research suggests that, for these reasons, diverse populations are best equipped to withstand complex challenges." Avery-Stoss said NEPA is also known to have an aging population — a sizable proportion of residents are over the age of 65. In 2023, Avery-Stoss said more than 20% of residents in the studied counties were seniors, and less than 11% were under age 10, highlighting potential future labor shortages and high demand for health care and support services. Additionally, Avery-Stoss said the number of older adults living alone has grown, with the region adding nearly 1,000 such individuals from 2020 to 2023. "This trend aligns with the desire of older adults to 'age in place' — ideally residing in the safety and comfort of their own homes rather than entering long-term care facilities," Avery-Stoss said. Despite these population shifts, Avery-Stoss said average household sizes in the region have remained stable. There has been an increase in single-parent households, however — particularly those led by women — in Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties. At the same time, Avery-Stoss said there has been a slight decline in the number of grandparents raising grandchildren. In Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties, the number of grandparents raising their grandchildren decreased between 2020 and 2023 (by 123 and 6, respectively). During the same period, Wayne County's number rose by 73. "Northeastern Pennsylvania is experiencing gradual, but important, demographic changes," said Avery-Stoss. "The population is aging, birth rates are declining, and diversity is increasing. Monitoring these demographic indicators should help shape policies and design public services that meet the unique needs of the community." Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Are there billions more people on earth than we thought? If so, it's no bad thing
According to the UN, the world's population stands at just over 8.2 billion. However, a recent study suggests the figure could be hundreds of millions or even billions higher. This news might sound terrifying, but it is important to remember that anxieties about overpopulation are rarely just about the numbers. They reflect power struggles over which lives matter, who is a burden or a threat and ultimately what the future should look like. The world's population reached 1 billion just after the turn of the 19th century. The number of people on the planet then began to grow exponentially, doubling to 2 billion by about 1925 and again to 4 billion about 50 years later. On 15 November 2022, the UN announced the birth of the eight billionth human. As it is not possible to count every single person in the world, the UN's population figures are calculated by dividing the Earth's surface into a grid and using census data to estimate how many people live in each square. This method provides a rough estimate, but until now it was thought to be reasonably reliable. A recent study by Dr Josias Láng-Ritter and his colleagues at Aalto University in Finland discovered that UN estimates undercount the number of people living in rural areas by more than 50%. This is because census data in the global south is often incomplete or unreliable outside big cities. Consequently, UN figures probably underestimate the world population by hundreds of millions or several billion. Many people argue that our planet does not have the resources to support 8 billion people. 'Overpopulation' is seen as the root cause of many of the world's biggest problems. But these concerns are nothing new. In 1988, the US sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov used what he referred to as 'my bathroom metaphor' to illustrate his fears about population growth. 'If two people live in an apartment, and there are two bathrooms, then both have what I call freedom of the bathroom.' But if 20 people live in the same apartment, they will impinge on each other's liberty one way or another. According to Asimov, rapid population growth creates a similar problem. It not only places enormous pressure on natural resources, but also erodes autonomy, dignity and civility. 'As you put more and more people on to the world, the value of life not only declines, it disappears.' At the turn of the 19th century, when there were fewer than a billion inhabitants on Earth, Thomas Malthus was already convinced that 'the period when the number of men surpass their means of subsistence has long since arrived'. Malthus's inability to predict that technology would revolutionise food production did not dent his popularity. On the contrary, as the world population grew, the prophets of doom grew ever louder. Neo-Malthusian anxieties reached fever pitch with Paul and Anne Ehrlich's The Population Bomb – subtitled Population Control or Race to Oblivion (1968). This hugely influential, bestselling book warned: 'The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death.' These devastating predictions encouraged governments and international agencies to take drastic action. As fertility rates were already falling in most high-income countries, these efforts concentrated on Africa and even more so Asia. USAID funded family planning programmes across what was then referred to as the developing world. Millions of Indian men were sterilised during the Emergency of the mid-1970s. In 1979, the Chinese Communist party introduced the one-child policy and a few years later launched a mass sterilisation campaign, which focused mainly on women. Today, plenty of people remain concerned about overpopulation, but their apocalyptic visions now concentrate on climate change, resource depletion and biodiversity loss. Despite stark disparities in consumption – Americans consume 360 times more carbon per capita than Somalis, for example – population control still focuses on the majority world. Thankfully, the coercive policies that took place in India, China and elsewhere are no longer in vogue. The new approach to population control focuses instead on women's empowerment. Educating women and giving them control over their lives has proved remarkably effective at reducing fertility rates. In the 1960s, women had on average five children each. Today, the figure is 2.3 per woman – just over what is needed to keep the population stable. By 2100 the global birthrate is projected to fall to 1.8. According to the UN, the world's population will peak at about 10.3 billion in the mid-2080s. After this it will stabilise, then fall. The exponential growth that gave Malthusians so many sleepless nights has been halted. That many people will put considerable stress on the Earth's resources, but if consumption is managed responsibly and sustainable technologies are developed, the world will avoid an apocalyptic catastrophe. Returning to Asimov's bathroom metaphor, as anyone who has crammed into one house with their extended family over Christmas knows, many people sharing few bathrooms creates a suboptimal situation. You won't be able to shower exactly when you want – and you'd better make it a short one. But this hardly amounts to the end of civilisation. In fact, compromise and sharing is probably closer to most people's idea of a good life than having the freedom to do whatever you want, whenever you want. Population growth varies starkly between regions. In most high-income countries, fertility rates are already well below the replacement level. The African continent is projected to account for over half the world's population growth in the next three decades, with Asia and Latin America responsible for the rest. As the historian Alison Bashford points out, concerns about overpopulation are often not really about there being too many people but too many of the wrong kind of people. Ethnonationalists in Europe and North America see the disparities in birthrates as an existential threat to 'western civilisation'. They worry about their countries being indelibly changed by mass migration. But the cold hard truth is that in a few decades our shrinking, ageing societies will desperately need these newcomers to pay taxes and work in healthcare and social care. This vision of the future may be unsettling for some, but the alternative is much worse. To extend Asimov's metaphor, the populist right advocates a sort of bathroom apartheid. They are en suite isolationists, who want to retain exclusive use over one of the bathrooms in the apartment, and force the 19 other flatmates to share. At first, this approach has its advantages. They can soak in the bath all day. They can sit for hours on the can reading the news. But sooner or later they will come a cropper. Perhaps the other toilet becomes blocked and the whole flat is inundated with raw sewage. The other flatmates might forcibly seize control of the personal bathroom. Or as the en suite isolationists grow old and infirm, they'll find themselves with no one to bathe them or wipe their bottoms. Jonathan Kennedy teaches politics and global health at Queen Mary University of London, and is the author of Pathogenesis: How Germs Made History
