預測:2050年英國將成歐洲人口最多國家

Britain will be the biggest country in Europe by 2050, overtaking both France and Germany, according to official projections.

Britain will see its population swell from today's 62.2 million to 77 million, an increase of 24 percent.

This will make it bigger than France, projected to be 70 million and Germany, which is predicted to have 71.5 million citizens.

The forecasts come from the Population Reference Bureau, a US body which supplies data to governments and institutions around the world.

The predictions suggest that Britain will see its population increase over the next 40 years at a far faster rate than nearly every other European country. The extra 15 million equates to the combined populations of Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool being added to the total national population over the next two generations.

Britain's population has started to climb sharply in recent years. Last year the Office for National Statistics indicated that mothers had more children than at any time since 1973.

Immigrant mothers accounted for more than half of the increase in births, but the fertility rate among British-born women also rose sharply.

The Population Reference Bureau predicts that France's population, in contrast, will increase at half the rate, adding 7 million to its 63 million. While Germany will actually see its population fall sharply from 81.6 million to 71.5 million because of a lack of immigration, and a far lower birth rate than that in Britain. It already has the second oldest population in the world after Japan, with one in five of all Germans over the age of 65.

Europe, in total, will see its population dip from 739 million to 720 million, because of its low birth rate.

據官方預測，到2050年，英國將超過法國和德國，成爲歐洲人口最多的國家。

英國人口將激增24%，從目前的6220萬增長至7700萬。

這將超過法國和德國的7000萬和7150萬。

這些預測由美國人口資料局做出。該機構向世界各地的政府和機構提供數據資料。

預測結果顯示，在未來40年中，英國人口的增長速度將大大超過歐洲其它國家。這期間將增加的1500萬人口相當於格拉斯哥、伯明翰、曼徹斯特、利茲和利物浦人口的總和。

近年來英國人口增長迅速。去年，英國國家統計局的統計數據顯示，目前英國的人口出生率達1973年以來的最高水平。

其中，一半以上的新增人口來自移民家庭，不過英國本土女性的生育率也出現了大幅上升。

據人口資料局預測，法國人口的增長速度將爲英國人口增幅的一半，將在目前的6300萬基礎上增加700萬；德國由於移民少，出生率大大低於英國，未來該國的人口將從目前的8160萬大幅減至7150萬。德國人口的老齡化程度居世界第二，僅次於日本，該國65歲以上的老年人佔總人口的五分之一。

總體來看，受低出生率的影響，未來歐洲的人口將從目前的7.39億減至7.2億。

Vocabulary:

overtake: to become greater in number, amount or importance than something else （在數量或重要性方面）大於，超過

projection: an estimate or a statement of what figures, amounts, or events will be in the future, or what they were in the past, based on what is happening now（預測；推斷；設想）

dip: to go downwards or to a lower level（下降，下沉）