The island’s falling population could result in school closures.

That’s the warning from Isle of Man Population Atlas author Paul Craine following the publication of the latest Census last week which showed that the number of births is the lowest since 1987.

That Census data related only to April last year but Mr Craine says the birth rate showed further reduction throughout last year.

The number of births in 2016 stood at 758, the lowest for 30 years and 26 per cent lower than in 2010. By 2015 there were fewer births than the number of deaths and this negative natural population balance continued into 2016 when deaths exceeded births by 94.

Mr Craine said the most noticeable drops in the 0-4 years population are seen in Malew, Marown and Michael with losses of more than 30 children each.

He said: ’Successive school intakes will be very severely affected. Unless the annual number of births bounces back towards the 900 mark, it is difficult to see how all of the island’s 32 schools could remain open.’