Immigration and a sharp increase in the birth rate among non-British mothers will make Britain Europe’s most populated country by 2060.

The European Union’s statistics office has projected the population of Britain to rise from the current 61 million people to 77 million over the next 50 years.

As incoming migrant invaders and birth rates amongst invaders already present increase, Britain is set to become Europe’s most densely populated country.

Germany, currently Europe’s most populous nation, is projected to decline from 82 million to 71 million people by 2060. France will also overtake Germany to become the EU second-most populous country after Britain with 72 million residents, according to the forecast by Eurostat. Both Britain and France have rapidly expanding Muslim populations, whose birth rates are dramatically higher than Europeans.

Figures from the British Office for National Statistics, released last week, found that inward migration to Britain reached its highest level since the current method of counting was introduced, with 605,000 long-term immigrants arriving in the year to mid-2007.

The EU projections show that the wave of migration to Britain, boosting fertility rates, is out of step with many other European countries where deaths are expected to overtake births after 2015.

The EU figures also show that as the numbers of new Europeans enter into a decline the share of the overall population aged 65 years and over will almost double to 30 per cent by 2060.