According to the most recent statistics based on the nation’s 2021 census data, over one in six of the population of England and Wales last year were foreign-born, with 1.5% of citizens being Indians.
India remained the most common country of birth outside the UK in 2021
India continued to be the most common country of birth outside of the UK last year, with 920,000 people, according to the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS). Poland came in second with 743,000 people or 1.2% of residents, and Pakistan came in third with 624,000. (1 percent).
“One in six usual residents of England and Wales were born outside the UK, an increase of 2.5 million since 2011, from 7.5 million (13.4 percent) to 10 million (16.8 percent),” the ONS said in a release. “India remained the most common country of birth outside the UK in 2021,” it said.
Since the last census ten years ago, the top three non-UK countries of birth for England and Wales have remained unaltered as being India, Poland, and Pakistan, with the numbers increasing across all categories – India from 694,000, Poland from 579,000, and Pakistan from 482,000 in 2011. The census data also reveals that in 2021, the three most popular non-UK passports held by residents in England and Wales were Polish (760,000, 1.3%), Romanian (550,000, 0.9%), and Indian (369,000, 0.6%).
London continued to have the highest percentage of residents who were not born in the UK as well as those who held non-UK passports. In 2021, more than four in ten (40.6%) of London’s regular residents were not born in the UK, and more than one in five (23.3%) possessed a passport from a country other than the UK.
This is a marginal increase since 2011
This represents a little increase from 2011 when 21.0% of Londoners possessed a non-UK passport and 36.7% of people were not born in the UK. As a result of the lifting of employment restrictions for Romanian citizens in 2014, the number of people who identified Romania as their country of birth increased by 576 percent since the previous census, from 80,000 in 2011 to 539,000 in 2021. This increase is the highest in any country.
“The census paints a picture of how the make-up of the population has changed in the past decade. That decade, of course, saw us leave the EU as well as live with the pandemic,” said Jon Wroth-Smith, Census Deputy Director.
“While these events may have had an impact on people’s decisions or ability to migrate or travel at a given time, the census tells us about the change over the whole decade – who was living here in March 2021, compared with March 2011. 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,” he said.