Is the UK overpopulated ?

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Discussion

GroundZero

Original Poster:

2,085 posts

53 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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Some people will hold the notion that it is definitely not overpopulated, because there are vast spaces of of land that does not have housing on it. To bolster this there is the argument that it is the fault of the government for not building infrastructure etc.

Others will say it most definitely is overpopulated because its about how much space and resources an individual requires/demands whereby the UK is struggling to accommodate it. Also that the UK would struggle to raise taxes enough to be able to pay for it without placing vast numbers of people in to "income poverty".


Then there are the other social arguments, whereby one side will say that approaching the question of overpopulation will stray directly in to topics of racism.
And others will say immigration has a lot to answer for.

So is the UK overpopulated or is it a left or right wing agenda to give the impression that it is, or isn't ?

Eric Mc

121,768 posts

264 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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Why are you asking?

XJSJohn

15,959 posts

218 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_an...

32nd most densely populated by people / sqm.

As you say, it all depends on the infrastructure, transport and services. I lived in Singapore (number 2 on the list) for many years and that never felt that overpopulated, never had to queue much for a tube or bus, even in rush hour, traffic jams didnt seem to happen, and shops and malls never felt much more crowded than UK equivalents on a weekend.

Edit, and by City, no UK city even makes this list.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_po...

Surprised how many French cities are though ...



Edited by XJSJohn on Tuesday 11th February 15:16

Piersman2

6,596 posts

198 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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Overpopulated? No.

Under-infrastructured and serviced to support population and keep quality of life ? Yes, IMHO.

Answer: Improve infrastructure / services to match population, or restrict population. Or... improve efficiency in existing infrastructure/services.

Down and out

2,700 posts

63 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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XJSJohn said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_an...

32nd most densely populated by people / sqm.

As you say, it all depends on the infrastructure, transport and services. I lived in Singapore (number 2 on the list) for many years and that never felt that overpopulated, never had to queue much for a tube or bus, even in rush hour, traffic jams didnt seem to happen, and shops and malls never felt much more crowded than UK equivalents on a weekend.
Looks great.

227bhp

10,203 posts

127 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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Yes.

pequod

8,950 posts

137 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
quotequote all
No... and yes in terms of regional population densities.

The issue of overpopulation in the south east, particularly in and around London, has been a problem for decades and successive governments have never properly addressed it. Building yet more houses in ever more density is leading to pressures on the infrastructure and services (schools, hospitals, etc.) and long term needs to stop.

As HS2 has been the given the go-ahead today, together with more investment in the north has to be better, followed by decentralising government departments into the regions and financial incentives for the private sector to also move out of the SE.

Better that these initiatives are agreed across all political Partys as they will take decades to make any difference and should not be used as a political football.

IMHO

mickk

28,769 posts

241 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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If you read a certain thread on here we won't be overpopulated for much longer.

aeropilot

34,288 posts

226 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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Its not so much the total as too high a percentage packed into small specific areas, eg. London.

Population of London alone accounts for 13% of the UK population total.

Or put it another way, London would creep inside the top 100 if it was a country on its own, its now more than New York IIRC, and the population of London is double the whole population of countries such as Norway, Denmark & New Zealand.


fido

16,752 posts

254 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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Down and out said:
XJSJohn said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_an...

32nd most densely populated by people / sqm.

As you say, it all depends on the infrastructure, transport and services. I lived in Singapore (number 2 on the list) for many years and that never felt that overpopulated, never had to queue much for a tube or bus, even in rush hour, traffic jams didnt seem to happen, and shops and malls never felt much more crowded than UK equivalents on a weekend.
Looks great.
Plenty of places in London are worse than this, for crime and general standard of living. Also out trains are stt so it takes you an hour and a half to get from one part of London to another.

Earthdweller

13,423 posts

125 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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I think as population density decreases people get nicer and the quality of life improves

I used to live in London where there are lots of angry frustrated people, I now live in one of the least densely populated parts of Europe and life is just SO much nicer

As a general point I think parts of the U.K. are overpopulated but others are empty

Let’s not forget that about 15% of the UK is upland or mountain which is unsuitable for mass inhabitation

Cotty

39,387 posts

283 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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Its populated by too many of the wrong people. Could easily have a cull of undesirables.

biggles330d

1,525 posts

149 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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No it's not. Japan has 100m more people than we do for much the same land mass. I can understand why people in the South East and some other urban centres think it is, but its their choice to pile into the same little corners, pay extortionate rents for poxy small spaces and moan about crappy infrastructure.
Yes, I live outside the urban sprawl, am surrounded by countryside for a fraction of the price and in my view an infinitely better lifestyle. To say the UK as a whole is overcrowded is laughable to me from my perspective. We all have a choice how and where we choose to live!

TTwiggy

11,499 posts

203 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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aeropilot said:
Its not so much the total as too high a percentage packed into small specific areas, eg. London.

Population of London alone accounts for 13% of the UK population total.

Or put it another way, London would creep inside the top 100 if it was a country on its own, its now more than New York IIRC, and the population of London is double the whole population of countries such as Norway, Denmark & New Zealand.
I lived in London for over 30 years and never really felt 'hemmed in', other than during rush hour. Indeed, if you pick the right day, or right time of day, you can find yourself almost alone in some of the most central parts of town, such as the Thames path or the Square Mile.

CAPP0

19,530 posts

202 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
quotequote all
pequod said:
The issue of overpopulation in the south east, particularly in and around London, has been a problem for decades and successive governments have never properly addressed it. Building yet more houses in ever more density is leading to pressures on the infrastructure and services (schools, hospitals, etc.) and long term needs to stop.
I think this is a very valid point. I live in the SE and it feels severely overpopulated because of the inability of all manner of aspects of the local infrastructure to cope, despite the fact that if you look at a satellite picture there's still a lot of green around. But the tangible experience is that we're full.

Near me there are multiple schemes proposed to build houses, and the objections are almost always based on the local area not being able to cope. For example, I'm pretty sure you can't register as a new patient at the three or four practices nearest to me. You can't park in the local town unless you hover around for ages waiting for someone to leave. My GP referred me to hospital to make a specific appointment; I called last September and my appointment is at the end of April. If there is even a fairly minor incident on one of the local main roads, everywhere else is gridlocked within minutes. Schools I have no idea about.

The other thing is, with these proposed housing schemes, a lot of communities/villages/small towns are slowly being connected and thus absorbed into one big conurbation. People who moved to a semi-rural location 20-30 years ago are gradually having that amenity removed from them.

For me it's simply a question of population numbers vs infrastructure and amenities, and in the SE, whilst this is my own observation and not based simply on NIMBYism, there now seems to be a significant, and growing, mismatch.

Eric Mc

121,768 posts

264 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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Cotty said:
Its populated by too many of the wrong people. Could easily have a cull of undesirables.
And your nominations are......?

(I expect you don't include people like yourself).

Four Litre

2,013 posts

191 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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Depends on what your personal definition of what overpopulated really is.

I would say on balance it really is. Driving is now a complete misery to say what it was 20 years ago. Every time I leave the house to drive anywhere I'm astonished at how long it takes to even get out of my town, this is due to the amount of people all trying to do the same thing.

If the answer to this is to build bigger roads, etc and concrete over green fields, then to me its not really much of a good trade off. You notice it more when you go to a country with a bigger footprint, say France, where you can still to this day be the only person on a road if the stars align.

This country, especially the south east has reached a point that its become slightly unpleasant to be there. Sad really but having been around a few years you really do notice the difference.

My home town was a quite good looking market town, now its in competition with Croydon as to who can look the worst with the cheapest architecture available to give cheap homes to eastern europeans. On the plus side the women wear heels even popping out to the park smile

geeks

9,119 posts

138 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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mickk said:
If you read a certain thread on here we won't be overpopulated for much longer.
hehe

Vizsla

922 posts

123 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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mickk said:
If you read a certain thread on here we won't be overpopulated for much longer.
? 'Deporting Foreign Criminals' thread

colin_p

4,503 posts

211 months

Tuesday 11th February 2020
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Just because we could does not mean we should.

I find it absurd that despite all the fuss made by the pithy weird-beard tree-hugging environmentalist lot, they completely ignore overpopulation.