THE North-East's population is predicted to fall over the next 25 years - the only region in the UK expected to suffer a net loss of people.

The area's population is forecast to fall by two percent by the year 2028 if current trends continues. The decrease is blamed on the migration of people to the South, particularly the South East where the population is predicted to rise by 16.8 per cent.

Prof Ray Hudson, economic geographer at Durham University and director of the Wolfson Research Institute, Queens Campus Stockton, said: "This trend has been well established for the last two decades, with many people moving out of the North-East towards more affluent areas in the South due to the decline of shipbuilding and coal mining."

The Office of National Statistics predicts the greatest decreases in Middlesbrough (18pc) and Redcar and Cleveland (11pc). County Durham will decline 1.1pc and Tyne and Wear 2.4 pc.

Areas of the North-East region where the population is expected to grow are Darlington (6pc), Stockton-on-Tees (7pc) and Teesdale district (4.5pc).

In North Yorkshire, Hambleton (8.6pc), Harrogate (11pc), and Richmondshire (20pc) all expect significant increases.

A spokesman for Richmondshire District Council said the high figure for the district needed to be examined with some caution. How the number of soldiers based at Catterick Garrision were dealt with in the statistics might explain why the population was expected to increase by a fifth.

Prof Hudson believed that although relative birth and death rates were a factor in explaining some of the population changes, most of the North-East's expected population decline was down to migration.

This was despite the North East having the second lowest birth rate in the country according to the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.

Prof Hudson warned that the statistics were only projections. "It all depends on what policies are put in place to change the trend and this could be just the wake up call," he added.

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