Number of Brits who were born abroad is now 1 in 6 of population – with 2.5m in last decade

TEN million people who were born outside the UK are now living here – a staggering one in six of the population.

New census figures reveal the number of those hailing from overseas has risen by 2.5 million in the past decade, census figures show.

Reuters

Those born in India are still the most common in the UK with 925,000 people, making up 1.5 per cent of England and Wales[/caption]

Those born in Romania but now here rose by 576 per cent from a mere 80,000 in 2011 to 539,000 in 2021 with the spike following the lifting of working restrictions across the EU in 2014.

This was the highest increase out of any country in England and Wales, making the Eastern European country the fourth most common non-UK country of birth.

India is still the most common with 925,000 people here which makes up 1.5 per cent of our 59.6 million in England and Wales.

Italy has also entered the top 10 non-UK countries of birth rising to 277,000 in the ten years to 2021, making it a 106 per cent increase.

Just under 6 million residents held a non-UK passport with the most common being the Polish identity document with 760,000 possessing it.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman yesterday said: “The UK has always been a diverse country and we celebrate that.”

But Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: “These astonishing figures confirm that the number of overseas-born in the population of England and Wales has more than doubled to ten million since 2001.

“The high and uncontrolled level of immigration has meant young people struggling to get onto the housing ladder, worsening strains on the NHS and the irrevocable loss of green space.

“The government must get a grip of immigration as they have promised, but failed, to do for over ten years.”

Census deputy director Jon Wroth-Smith said: “We can see Romanians have been a big driver in this change, while there have also been increases due to migration from India, Pakistan and Poland, as well as Southern European countries such as Italy.

“We can also see that migration in the year prior to census was lower in 2021 than it was in 2011.

“This is likely, in large part, due to the various travel restrictions in place during the coronavirus pandemic.”