Is the UK booming or bursting?

Full up. No room at the inn. Double our optimum population. Britain, some argue, is bursting at the seams...

Or is it actually booming, this population paunch being the inevitable growth that comes with the territory of hosting what has become the world's capital city, sucking in wealth, jobs, capital, and people from across the globe? Population growth projections revealed today show both boom and burst.

Today there are just over 60 million people living in the UK. In ten years, that number will rise to 65 million, and by 2031, on these projections, our population will reach 71 million. That's 10 million more people living on these islands - or the population of greater London and Manchester put together in one generation.

Just over half that rise comes from changes to fertility and life expectancy. Just under half comes from net immigration. So does a multimillion projected rise in population by itself make the political case for immigration controls?

The political debate on immigration appears to have shifted from its economics effect to arguments about space. Now two centuries ago Robert Malthus mistakenly predicted mass famines arising from population growth.

Today, there's a kind of modern Malthusianism, the politics of congestion --- not enough space on roads, train carriages in school classrooms, or hospital wards. Does this show we aren't investing enough in these services? Or does it show that 70 million is much too much?

Across the UK matters are also complicated by huge differences in existing and projected population growth.

England's population is projected to grow by 19 per cent. While Scotland's population is expected to grow by just five percent.

This is a kind of population bubble where people are attracted to those areas that are already most densely populated.

Today, England has a population density of 389 people per square kilometre. Scotland has a low population density - just sixty five people per square kilometre.

And unsurprisingly Scottish authorities are actively seeking out faster immigration flows.

In the capital there are nearly 4,700 people in every square kilometre - and that could spike up to nearly 6,000 in the next generation. Yet it's certainly not the highest in the world.

So while we may well have political competition over stronger forms of migration control, its rather difficult to put a number on how much is too much.

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