Portsmouth population reflective of city popularity, says council leader

Portsmouth City Council says that the naval city's wealth of jobs and its growing economy is to thank for its ballooning population.

City council leader Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson made the comments as the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that Portsmouth is the most densely populated region in England and Wales outside London.

According to portsmouth.co.uk, the city's population has grown by 9.1 per cent between 2001 - 2011, from 188,000 to 205,000. This makes the city one of the fastest growing in the entire country. The population in nearby Gosport's wasn't far behind though, growing by 7.7 per cent to 82,600. Meanwhile, East Hampshire grew by 5.7 per cent, while Fareham and Havant both grew by 3.3 per cent.

As a whole, the population in the South East grew by eight per cent to 8.6 million people.

Councillor Vernon-Jackson said that the appeals of Portsmouth are clearly "apparent" and not just to local letting agents. Portsmouth has in many ways bucked the trends of the recession.

"On the upside we, unlike other places, have not had to shut schools, and while we have empty shops, we've got nowhere near the national average of 11 per cent closed shops in the city. It's apparent that the economy of the city is growing and there are jobs here," he said.

As a whole the population across England and Wales has grown by 3.7 million people over the last 10 years - the biggest rise since national records began in 1801, says guardian.co.uk.

Posted 18-07-2012
Author: Chris Taylor