Whats Next in the United Kingdom - Essay Example

Politics and Society: What's next in United Kingdom The growth and prosperity of country mainly depends on its population trends. Depending on its size and type of population, respective governments have to make amendments in their policy and other issues. The United Kingdom is not an exception to these phenomena as it is one of the most urbanized nations on this planet. And the present global warming threats are making life worse for all the developed and developing nations around the world to reduce the pollution, use of electricity, other unnatural resources, etc. to provide necessary basic amenities to their respective citizens. And moreover the world is getting smaller with its boundaries virtually erased in the name of globalization. Migration is taking place on large extent legally and illegally. This further increases the rate of population and the responsibility of host country to provide the migrated population with all the basic amenities. According to Census 2001, the United Kingdom had a total population of 58,789,194, further increased to 59.5 million in 2003, 18% increase from 50.3 million in 1950 and 3.2% increase from 1993 to 2003.1 Such trends in population growth compel the authorities to change the policies and type of services and schemes for the welfare and development of society. Population Trends in United Kingdom: Future Predictions The Office of National Statistics hinted that England is prepared to be the Europe's most crowded place and population of UK increasing at the rate of almost 33% in the next 50 years. Based on this predictions, it is presumed that population density will increase from 1,010 persons per square mile to 1,349 persons per square mile.2 The United Kingdom's population is increasing at brisk pace and it is estimated to be touching over 83 million3 by the end of 2081 which is almost 45% increase from 58 million in the year 2001. According to estimates released by the Office of National Statistics, United Kingdom is to be occupied with 60.5 million during 2006-07 and will reach some 78 million during 2051-56 after taking into account the births, deaths, rate of immigration into the country. The national statistics department has put forward that the total fertility will stand at 1.89% and predicts that it will continue at this rate till 2051-56. The age wise growth of population in the year 2006 was like 10.7 million (0-14 years), 11.8 million (15-29 years), 13.3 million (30-44 years), 11.7 million (45-59 years), 8.2 million (60-74) and some 4.6 million in the category of 75 years & over.4 It is estimated that this figures will not change in the next 40 years or so with the exception in the age group of above 45 years. The United Kingdom will be populated with more number of aged people than in any country in Europe. The aged population is predicted to grow at 16.2% in 2056 as compared to present growth rate of 13.6% in 2006 among the age group of 60-74 years. The average age is expected to rise from 39.4 years in 2003 to 43.6 years in 2031 and further predictions suggest that this will rise to 45 years in the near future. Based on these assumptions, it is believed that life expectancy will rise from 76.2 years in 2003 to 81 years in 2031 and 80.6 years in 2003 to 84.9 years in 2031 for men and women respectively.5 According to 2001 Census, United Kingdom accounted for 4.6 million ethnics' population which contributed 7.9% of the total UK population. And the largest ethnic group was none other than Indian with 1.05 million. Most of the ethnic populations were Asians led by Indians followed by Pakistan (0.7m), Bangladesh (0.2m) and other Asian (0.2m). The United Kingdom is also home to black with Caribbean Blacks leading the numbers with 0.5 million and others contributing around 0.6 million.6 With such large diverse population, the United Kingdom is bound to face many a millions of problem revolving around the development of communities and to prepare the policies and amend the constitution, so that no citizen of United Kingdom is isolated from the mainstream society. The policy makers, therefore, will have to take necessary precautions while preparing for the future, keeping in view the growth and type of population in United Kingdom. Future Challenges to the UK Government The Office for National Statistics has clearly indicated a spur in the population growth. The reasons for this could be attributed to access to better health conditions and better medical aid by population. Immigration is other major reason for the increase in overall UK population and UK ethnic groups. These factors will affect the UK government economically as the government will have to provide houses, medical facilities, roads, education, employment, etc. Some of them are explained below. Increasing in demand for house which may lead to souring house prices, virtually compelling the government to provide housing/mortgage loans to facilitate its citizen with housing facility. Providing education is the topmost priority of any country and with increasing population it becomes more and more difficult to maintain the standards. To the ever increasing population, new schools have to be started through more tax revenue. Road congestion will be the greatest threat as it would require space to construct roads and with already so much development, it would be difficult to increase the space which may even result in high number of road fatalities. Tax benefits for the ageing population through pension and health care spending. Due to increase in life expectancy, the governments have to provide pension, health and other facilities to the old population. Immigrants are considered for certain economic benefits. Under this circumstance, the government will have to alter their policies and tax benefits keeping in view, the development of the society in general and country at large.7 The increase in population of older people will lead to fewer workers, less tax payers increasing the dependency ratio. The Royal Commission of Long Term Care predicted that the expense on long term care may increase from 11 billion in 1995 to 20 billion in 2020 and 45 million in 2050.8 The government will have to put in additional effort to provide employment to the citizens as well as to the ever increasing immigrants. The rate of unemployment may increase if necessary measures are not taken to provide better jobs. The volume of ethnic population in United Kingdom gives rise to many racial discrimination issues. There have been many issues concerned with this subject at workplace, schools, politics, etc. Government will have to take necessary precautionary measures and make viable policy to tackle the present issues and will have to empower the ethnic with certain constitutional amendment.9 The government will also have to provide financial assistance to Persons with Disability and other reservations so that they can lead good and better life. And most important factor, security. With so many terror strikes taking place in the vicinity, it will be of greater concern than anything for government to provide security to its population. Conclusion The United Kingdom is estimated to be most crowded in Europe as per the estimates released from the Office for National Statistics. Jonathon Porritt, leading green advisor to Gordon Brown, warned that Britain must implement necessary and viable measures and try out every option to reduce its population up to 30 million in order to build a sustainable society.10 The government will have to make long term fiscal policies to make necessary arrangements for the payment of pensions and other financial aids to its citizen, mainly the ageing population. The major challenge will be to provide employment to growing population. It can be assumed that there may be huge spur in the unemployment rate with so many immigrants coming to United Kingdom. Most of them are unskilled and under educated which adds to the injury. Therefore it is necessary for the United Kingdom to prepare itself for the future complications that may arise by making necessary policies in regard to pension, employment, financial aids, reservations, racial discrimination, education, hospitals, etc. United Kingdom must make every effort to provide better facilities to each and every citizen and take precautionary measures to reduce the rate of population. References 1) "Demographic and Social Trends". Leadership and Management for HR Professionals, p.471-473. http://www.download-it.org/free_files/filePages%20from%2013%20Demographic%20and%20social%20trends.pdf 2) 2006 based National Population Projections, http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_population/NPP-2006/NPP06_NSOnline.pdf 3) Census 2001, Office for National Statistics, United Kingdom 4) Census April 2001, Office for National Statistics, United Kingdom. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.aspID=273 5) HM Treasury's policy challenges for the UK: the contribution of the Research Councils. http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/cmsweb/downloads/rcuk/news/csrchallenges.pdf 6) How to deal with an Ageing Population, Economics Help. http://www.economicshelp.org/2008/05/uk-population-forecast-to-rise-look-at.html 7) Leake, Jonathon and Montague, Brendan. 'UK Population must fall to 30m, says Porritt" (March 22, 2009) The Sunday Times. Times Online http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5950442.ece 8) Population Growth; The Greatest Challenge. Population and Sustainability Network (6th December 2006) Royal Geographical Society. 9) The effect of Immigration into the UK. Economics Help. http://www.economicshelp.org/2007/06/effect-of-immigration-into-uk.html 10) UK Population Forecast to Rise - A look at Economic Effects. Economics Help, http://www.economicshelp.org/2008/05/uk-population-forecast-to-rise-look-at.html Read More