§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, further to his reply of 1 December 1981, Official Report, column 88, if he will give details of the total population of the United Kingdom for each of the years 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980 and for the latest date available; and if he will give the number of people in each case who were covered by the National Health Service only, and the number of people who were covered by a private health scheme.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergThe information is given below:
Total United Kingdom population United Kingdom population not covered by a private health scheme United Kingdom population covered by a private health scheme* 1950 50,565,000 50,445,000 120,000 1960 52,559,000 51,654,000 995,000 1970 55,522,000 53,540,000 1,982,000 1980 56,010,000 52,433,000 3,577,000 * This information is derived from "Provident Schemes Statistics 1980" produced by Lee Donaldson Associates. The information relates only to the three main provident associations which are estimated as accounting for about 98 per cent. of total subscription income.