One in Six People in England and Wales were Born in Foreign Countries: Census

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Kurt Zindulka

The foreign-born population of England and Wales has hit its highest level in recorded history, with some 10 million, or one in six residents in the country now being born outside of the UK.

According to figures compiled by the once-in-a-decade census, the percentage of those born outside the UK and living as a ‘normal resident’ in England and Wales has risen by an astonishing 2.5 million over the past decade, increasing from 7.5 million (13.4 per cent of the population) to 10 million or 16.8 per cent of the population since the previous census in 2011.

While the government has yet to release the demographic figures for those who were born in the UK, the release on Wednesday showed that of those born in foreign countries, those hailing from EU countries (including Croatia, which joined the EU in 2013) represented 36.6 per cent (3.6 million) of the foreign-born population, an increase from 2.5 million in 2011. Therefore, some 6.4 million foreign-born residents in Britain were born outside of the EU, up from 5.1 million a decade ago.

In comments prodived to Breitbart London, Migration Watch Chairman Alp Mehmet 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.

“Furthermore, as the former ‘integration czar’ Baroness Casey noted, high immigration has meant parts of the UK changing out of all recognition over a very short space of time. The pace of change is unsustainable. Successful cohesion while this level of immigration continues is impossible.

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

The most common country of origin recorded was India, which accounted for 920,000 foreign-born residents, or 1.5 per cent of the total population of the country, and an increase from 694,000 just ten years ago. This was followed by Poland, which has risen from 579,000 to 743,000 and Pakistan which represented 624,000 compared to 482,000 in 2011.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) noted in its release that there was a “large increase” in the number of people living in the UK who were born in Romania. According to the census figures, the number of people who listed Romania as their home country rose to 539,000 in 2021, up 576 per cent from 2011 when just 80,000 did so. The statistician office noted that this was the highest increase of any country, and made Romania the fourth most common non-UK country of birth.

The population overall in England and Wales hit its highest level in recorded history, increasing by 3.5 million from 56 million to 59.6 million over the past decade. The ONS revealed that over half, or 57 per cent, of the population growth since 2011 was a result of immigration.

The massive influx of foreigners to the country recorded in the latest census all came during the rule of the Conservative Party, which came to power in 2010. Under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Tories dropped the long-standing promise — though never fulfilled — from the Conservative Party to reduce net migration to the country “from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands”.

In 2017, former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osbourne admitted that the party leadership never actually intended on fulfilling their promise to the public and that in private they did not even believe in the policy.

Following the completion of Brexit, Johnson introduced a points-based system supposedly created to emulate the Australian model. However, unlike the Australian system, Johnson’s placed no hard cap on the number of migrants allowed in per year, allowing a record 1.1 million visas to be issued to foreign nationals in the year leading up to June.

 

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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