BOLTON’S population is set to soar to 324,000 by 2035, new figures have revealed.

But the town is “well placed” to cope with the spike in numbers, with plans in place to provide additional school places and housing.

Cllr Cliff Morris, leader of Bolton Council, said: “Obviously, it will be a challenge in terms of jobs. But we will be looking at how we can do it.

With school places, we have the right infrastructure in place now.

“But this must be seen as a good thing for Bolton. It shows that people want to move here.

“It shows Bolton is the place to be and we should be proud of that.

“There is always a bit of ebb and flow with school numbers, so we will monitor it as we go along.”

Council bosses are spending £20 million to create 350 more places in existing schools.

This comes just four years after the council controversially shut down schools claiming there were too few pupils.

The 350 places is on top of the 255 new intake places created across some 17 primary schools since 2009.

A breakdown of statistics shows 19 out of 94 primary schools in Bolton are at or above the limit in terms of pupil numbers.

Greater Manchester’s population will rise to more than three million.

The figures, from the Office of National Statistics, show that Bolton will see one of the highest rises in the region, from 270,000, up 20 per cent, to 324,000.

In 1801 there were just 37,417 people living in the borough of Bolton.

This had more than doubled to 89,507 in 1841.

Bury’s population is set to edge towards a quarter of a million, by 2035, a similar rise of 20 per cent.

Salford is catching Bolton up in terms of population and will see the biggest rise, from 230,000 to 300,000.