The costs of elderly care are set to rise steadily over the next 25 years as people live longer, according to the latest population forecast from the Office for National Statistics. But the number of children under 16 is also set to rise from 11.5m in 2006 to 13m by 2031, placing extra demands on education services. The number of elderly people aged over 75 will increase from 4.7m in 2006 to 8.2m by 2031, a rise of 76%, with life expectancy also up over five years in the same period, an extra 12 months more than previous ONS estimates in 2004. By 2031, UK pensioners will exceed the number of children under 16 by more than 2m, while in 2006, there were 200,000 more children than pensioners. The number of pensioners is forecast to rise from 11.3m in 2006 to almost 15m by 2031, even taking into account the extension of retirement to 65 for women between 2010 and 2020, and to 66 for both sexes from 2024 to 2026. The working age population will also get older. In 2006 there were 10% more working age adults aged below 40 than were aged above 40, but by 2031, the opposite will be true by 7%. The UK population is projected to rise by 10m to 71m by 2031, based on past trends. Long-term net migration is forecast at 190,000 a year, higher than previous 2004 estimates. LGA chairman, Sir Simon Milton, said population figures failed to accurately record the true costs of immigration on council services such as housing and schools.
