• At 1.2 per cent, Buckinghamshire had the strongest growth of any county council area
• Working age residents now account for only 61.5 per cent of the population
• Internal migration made the largest contribution to this rise, adding 2,925 to the population, ahead of natural change (1,774) and international migration (1,730)

Buckinghamshire’s population rose by 5,813 or 1.2 per cent in the year to June 2014, the  highest rate of increase among the 27 county councils and the 6th highest of the 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).  This increases Buckinghamshire’s population density to 335 people for every km2, up from 329 in 2013, the 9th highest density among county councils and the 23rd highest among LEPs.  Since 2011, Buckinghamshire’s population has risen by 21,850 (4.3 per cent) the 4th highest rate of increase among LEPs.

Aylesbury Vale accounted for almost two thirds (64.0 per cent) of Buckinghamshire’s increase.  With a rise of 2.2 per cent over the year, the district saw the 11th highest increase of all 380 local authorities in Great Britain, ranking 4th outside London, while the rise of 4,147 was the 26th highest absolute rise (13th outside London).

Table 1: Demography, 2015

Source: MYPE, ONS, 2016

Internal migration made the largest contribution adding 2,925 residents to the population, ahead of natural change (1,774) and international migration (1,730).  There were 6,119 births over the year and only 4,345 deaths, with 30,609 people moving into Buckinghamshire from other parts of the country and only 27,684 moving out, while 3,621 people moved to Buckinghamshire from outside the UK, with 1,891 leaving the county to live abroad.

While Buckinghamshire’s total population rose 1.2 per cent in the year, the highest rate of increase was among those aged 65 and over at 1.9 per cent (1,823), followed by the 1.6 per cent (1,737) increase in residents aged under 16.  The working age population rose by only 0.9 per cent (2,918) to see the share of residents aged 16-64 fall to 61.5 per cent, the lowest on record.  More than a fifth (20.3 per cent) of Buckinghamshire’s residents are aged under 16, the highest share of any county council, while the annual increase to 2015 of 1.6 per cent was also the highest among England’s 27 county counties.

Within the working age group, the largest increase was among people in their 50s, where Buckinghamshire saw an increase of 1,671 (2.3 per cent), with the next highest being among people in their 30s, where the rise of 664 (1.8 per cent) was made up of increases of 759 and 123 in Aylesbury Vale and Chiltern and falls of 154 and 64 in Wycombe and South Bucks.

Only 10.5 per cent of Buckinghamshire residents are in their twenties, the 3rd lowest share among the 39 LEPs, ahead of Cumbria and Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, falling to 8.0 per cent in Chiltern, the 2nd lowest share of all 326 local authority districts in England, ahead of Elmbridge (Surrey).  At 14.9 per cent, Buckinghamshire has the 2nd highest share of residents in their 40s behind Thames Valley Berkshire.

Table 2: Demography by broad age group, 2015

Source: MYPE, ONS, 2016

At the national level, England’s population rose 469,709, with London accounting for 28.0 per cent of the increase.  London’s annual increase of 135,024 was made up of 133,326 net international migration and natural change of 78,340, with a net loss of 77,528 residents to other parts of the country.

Despite rising by only 0.9 per cent, Buckinghamshire recorded the 6th highest rate of increase in working age residents among LEPs, with 10 of the 39 seeing falls.  All LEPs saw an increase in the number of residents aged 65 and over, with Buckinghamshire’s 1.6 per cent increase ranking only 17th among LEPs and 18th among county council areas.

The raw data can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/populationestimatesforukenglandandwalesscotlandandnorthernirelandmid2015

Chart 1: Buckinghamshire’s comparative demography, 2015 (England=100)

Source: MYPE, ONS, 2016

Chart 2: Buckinghamshire’s comparative demography by district, 2015 (England=100)

Source: MYPE, ONS, 2016