UK IMMIGRATION NEWS

Record UK immigration makes population soar

Monday, 1 September 2008

The Office for National Statistics shows the total population of Britain has reached record levels and immigration has been the biggest contributor. The trend indentifies that Britain will become the most populous country in Europe by 2060.

Since 2001, the population of the UK has risen by more than 2 million people, to reach 60,975,000 people. Over the past year alone, 605,000 long-term migrants (migrants staying for one year or more) moved to Britain, which is 21 per cent more than the number recorded in 2001.

Long-term emigration also reached a record high this year, with 406,000 people leaving the country for longer than a year. Many British nationals are now moving to Australia, Spain, New Zealand and Canada in search of a new lifestyle and different job opportunities.

A rising birth rate and record immigration helped the U.K.'s population to rise to almost 61 million by mid-2007, as fertility levels rose and previous migrants had babies.

Immigration has been the biggest factor in increasing the population in recent years, and with millions of new arrivals starting families the birth rate is soaring. Almost a quarter of all babies in Britain are now born to immigrant mothers. In London the figure is 54 per cent, rising to 75 per cent in some boroughs.

Foreign-born mothers have an average of 2.54 children, compared with 1.79 for women born in the UK. In most cases a baby born in the UK acquires automatic citizenship if one parent holds a UK passport, although rules are complex. If parents have settled in Britain legally, children can secure British citizenship within a few years.

There are currently 6.3 million people in the UK who were born abroad - well over 10 per cent of the population, and 1.1million more than in 2004. Polish workers account for almost a third of that increase. Just over 400,000 UK residents left to live abroad last year, which still left a net inward migration of some 200,000 people.

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