passport office strikes,somethings not right,thoughts?

The Independent:

At peak times – including April – HM Passport Office can receive 250,000 applications per week.

Your interpretation is wrong!

An over literal even mis-interpretation of the figures?

What Riverwalk says

Yes the small words do often change interpretation of numbers.
Thinking about it, there must also be people who get a passport and then die, I don’t think you surrender their passports.
Then there are babies born who must also have their own passports now.
So at any one time there’s more passports than actual people.

To add to that, babies passports are only valid for 5 years, as obviously they change in appearance, so are renewed. Women who get married change their passports to their married name and those who change gender also renew their passports. All adding to the numbers, although they are the same person in respect of the population numbers.

People applying for British citizenship will apply for a passport too.
Fairly common to have dual nationality now, DD has a Belgian passport as well as her British one, makes it much easier for her travelling in the EU for work.

I was listening to Simon Calder yesterday and he was begging people whose passports expire at the end of the year not to panic and not to apply now. The passport offices will be inundated. DD1 genuinely needs a new passport for DGS1, as he’s now 5 and they’re going away at the end of the school holidays, hopefully she can get it in time.