Britain population stats REVEALED: Non-UK born continue to grow in number
THE NUMBER of UK residents born outside of the country continues to grow, according to new statistics released today.
The number of UK residents born outside of the country continues to grow
The non-UK population rose from 8.6 million in 2015 to 9.2 million in 2016, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) announced.
This means around one-in-seven UK residents were born outside the country. One-in-11 do not have British nationality.
The biggest increase by region of birth was the EU, while the number of non-EU nationals in Britain remained at a stable level.
And the ONS report revealed Poland is now the biggest country of birth for foreign-born residents, with an estimated 911,000 people born in the country. The number of people living in Britain claiming Polish nationality is even higher at one million.
Nicola White of the migration statistic unit for the ONS said: “The population of the UK continued to increase between 2015 and 2016, driven by overall significant increases in both the non-UK born and non-British national population of the UK.
“In 2016 around 1 in 7 of the usually resident population in the UK were born abroad, and 1 in 11 had non-British nationality.
One-in-11 UK residents do not have British nationality
“There were 3.6 million people resident in the UK who were born abroad and held British nationality (39% of the non-UK born population).
"The number of Polish nationals resident in the UK reached 1 million in 2016. However, this period covers just 6 months following the EU referendum."
The ONS also announced the highest number of EU citizens leaving the UK in a decade, despite the general rise in non-UK born residents.
The ONS also announced the highest number of EU citizens leaving the UK in a decade
Around 122,000 EU citizens left the UK in 2016, according to the new figures. There was a particularly sharp rise in departures of citizens from the so-called EU8 countries which joined the union in 2004: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Ms White continued: "International migration for work remains the most common reason for migration with people becoming increasingly likely to move to the UK or overseas only with a definite job than to move looking for work.”