ABSTRACT
The patterns of population change in any given area are determined by the combined effects of prevailing trends in fertility, mortality and migration. As noted, Britain’s population in the 1990s is relatively stable, with little inherent potential for natural growth in the foreseeable future and a prob able long-term decline. However, a stable national regime masks the importance of more volatile patterns of change within individual localities. Patterns of fertility and mortality vary from place to place in relation to population structure and local economic performance, but the principal influence on local patterns of change is the movement of population. Some areas of Britain have lost significant numbers over the past twenty years, particularly the inner areas of the major metropolitan centres. Other localities have grown substantially as a result of a sustained influx of migrants. The movement of population not only influences the distribution of total numbers but also impacts on local variations in fertility and mortality. Migration flows tend to be selective in terms of age and social status. The influx to. the expanding centres in the South East tends to be characterized by young, skilled or professional adults with the effect of creating a bulge in the age/sex structure and a rise in underlying trends in fertility. The stream of retirement migrants to the English coastal resorts has the reverse effect, adding to the levels of mortality in the receiving communities.
