Rise in migrant babies means UK will have a bigger population than Germany by 2060

Britain’s population will overtake Germany’s in the next 50 years, according to a new study.

Germany currently has the EU’s highest population, with 81million inhabitants, compared with 64million in the UK.

But a baby boom in Britain – due largely to soaring immigration – means the UK’s population will top 77million by 2060, according to predictions.

The number of people living in Germany – which the new study found now has the lowest birth rate in the world – is meanwhile expected to drop to 67million over the next 45 years.A new study suggests Britain’s population will have overtaken that of Germany by 2060

Britain has bucked the trend for the number of babies being born since the financial crash, with higher birth rates than Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.

It is believed the number of women of child-bearing age who have moved to the UK from the rest of the world has contributed to the baby boom.

Women in the UK who were born abroad have on average 2.2 children, while those born in Britain have 1.8 children, figures show.

The UK currently has a birth rate of 12.6 babies per 1,000 people, around 50 per cent higher than Germany’s 8.2 and Japan’s 8.3.Britain’s birthrate is much higher than many European countries, such as Germany, Italy and Spain

Andre Wolf, of the Hamburg Institute of International Economics, who compiled the latest study, told The Times that immigrants moving to Germany seemed to ‘adapt faster’ to the country’s habit of having fewer babies later in life than those moving to the UK and therefore have fewer children.

Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures show that Britain’s population rose by 4.6million between 2001 and 2012.

The ONS said that, on average, 57 per cent of the UK’s population increase since 2001 has been due to net migration.

After the ONS statistics were published in November, Sir Andrew Green, chairman of MigrationWatch UK, said: ‘It is now undeniable that the massive scale of net migration has been the main cause of our population growth and that, in the future, our population growth is likely to be almost entirely due to migration.’

Kosovo has the highest birth rate in Europe, with 18 babies per 1,000 people, followed by Turkey (with 17) and Ireland (with 16).

The African nation of Mali has the highest birth rate in the world, followed by Mali and Chad.