UK population grew by 500,000 last year, taking total living in Britain to 64.6m

There are now 64.6 million people living in Britain, according to official figures

Crowds wait at London Luton Airport in September 2014 (Danny E. Martindale/Getty Images)

Britain's population grew by nearly half a million last year, official figures have revealed, taking the number of people living in the UK to 64,596,800.

More than half of the increase (53 per cent) was due to a rise in net migration - 259,700.

"Natural growth" - births minus deaths - added an extra 226,200, according to the Office for National Statistics, which estimated that in total, 491,100 more people lived in the UK in June 2014 than the previous year.

The numbers saw an above-average growth compared to figures released over the past decade. The ONS said the number of older people living in the UK continued to rise.

Some 11.4 million people were aged 65 and over in mid-2014, which makes up 17.7 per cent of the population. This was up from 11.1 million the previous year. A quarter of the population is projected to be over the age of 65 by 2044, according to the ONS.

Less than one in ten people live outside England, the latest stats show - 84 per cent of the UK population lives in England, 8 per cent lives in Scotland, 5 per cent in Wales and 3 per cent in Northern Ireland.

The median age of the UK population as a whole - the age at which half the population is younger and half the population is older, is 40 years, which is the highest ever on record.

Unsurprisingly London had the highest population growth, with 1.45 per cent more people living in London on the previous year. The lowest area of growth came in Wales, which saw a rise of just 0.31 per cent.