estimated to have caused the death of upwards of 900,000 people in the United Kingdom. This as a consequence shrunk the male population of the Lost Generation and altered the sex ratio, which slowed the growth rate of the population down. By the end of the Second World War, this transition had been completed and the society had a low but fluctuating birth rate, a low death rate and a slowed growth rate of the population. In 1948, the British Nationality Act was signed which allowed the access of the peoples of the British Empire's colonies to migrate to the country being classed in nationality as the same as a native of the United Kingdom. This law, while a unintentional side-effect, led to the start of modern migration to the United Kingdom. The move into the 4th stage also took place during major social change in the United Kingdom throughout the 1960s. Liberalisation of society during the decade led to the 1967 Abortion Act which legalised abortion in the United Kingdom for the first time, and the 1969 Divorce Reform Act, which liberalised the circumstances under which someone can get a divorce. Between these years, the population fluctuated; from the 1950s onwards the population increased through natural growth but by the time of the mid 1970s the population decreased due to emigration, which took net migration to a negative, and deaths exceeding births. For the first time in 1973, the birth rate of the country fell below replacement level, due to the previous liberalising acts. By the 1980s, the decline of population growth had recovered to a extent due to a reversal of net emigration. In the 1990s, international migration began to contribute more proportionally to population growth, and by 1998 this had passed natural increase as the main provider of growth. Liberalisation of immigration rules under the new government allowed rapid increase of the number of migrants arriving, quadrupling the number from a net migration rate of 50,000 a year, to 200,000 a year. Modern century, 2000–present By the beginning of the 21st century, the population of the United Kingdom rested at a total of 59,113,000 people. In each constituent nation, the population of England was 49,449,700, Scotland had a population of 5,064,200, Wales had a population of 2,910,200 and Northern Ireland a population of 1,689,300. Increased international migration which began to rapidly increase at the end of the