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discontent. Hazards of pollution, arising mainly from man's
inability to control his procreative powers, will multiply correspondingly.
Little imagination is needed to visualise that, under such
stresses, society's structures will surely be at risk and social advancement
severely retarded.
Understandably, the bulk of this increase arises in the underdeveloped
countries but, as a nation, we are adding our quota,
albeit more slowly, to the sum total and every year this country
loses 44,000 acres of good agricultural land to urban development.
Clearly we need to be increasingly concerned with the relationship
of population to the "carrying" capacity of the country, for
failure to achieve balance with our environment will prove
disastrous. By many experts, the consequences of our overpopulation
are already to be detected in the rise of broken homes
and mental illness, in the collapse of moral and political rectitude
and in a proliferation of crime and drug taking.
In this country, population replacement is achieved if, on average,
each mariage produces 2.1 children but a figure of 2.4 or more over
the last decade accounts largely for our present surfeit. Indeed,
support for our increasing population, which is already greater
than can be sustained by natural resources, is only made possible
by our industrial and financial expertise. However, the growing
use now being made of the Abortion Act indicates not only a
general awareness of the dangers of unplanned births but also
an outstanding need for family planning which may well lead to
a firmer national policy in this respect.
Estimated mid-year population of England and Wales at
48,987,700 indicates an increase of 160,900 (0.33%) over last
year. That of Greater London, viz. 7,612,280 shows a decrease
of 91,120 (1.2%), a loss which appears to be partially compensated
by a gain of 20,870 (0.12%) over the South East Area as
a whole to 17,315,510, a figure which represents 35.3% of the
England and Wales total population.
Population Losses—Social Implications
(a) London
Ever since the Abercrombie report which concluded that London
was growing too fast and that too many of the nation's resources
were becoming concentrated in the South East, there have been
determined government efforts to curb these movements. With the
aid of tax incentives and industrial development certificates, etc.,
industry has been so successfully discouraged from establishing
or expanding itself in the London area that the trend has not
only been arrested but reversed and this is reflected in the fact