UK Population Breaks Through 60m Barrier
Tuesday 09 October
International migrants added 939,000 to the UK's population in the past five years, new figures showed today, pushing the overall number of people in the country to more than 60million.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the 939,000 people were a mixture of foreign immigrants and British-born citizens returning to the
In separate figures submitted to the House of Lords select committee on economic affairs, the ONS stated that during the period 2001 to 2005, there was a net growth of 1,387,000 foreign-born residents.
After deducting the half a million British citizens who left the country in that period, there was a net rise in the UK population of 884,000 in the five years to more than 60 million.
In the five years to 2006, international migration added 892,000 to the population of
In the four years to 2006, the overseas-born population who were of working age increased by 26% to 947,000, while the British-born working population fell fractionally by 44,000.
However, last year there was also a greater proportion of foreign-born workers in low-paid jobs than in 2001, the ONS said.
Many of the new immigrants have come from the east and central
A total of 683,000 eastern Europeans, mostly Poles, have applied to work in
Story: Fred Attewill and agencies, Guardian Unlimited
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/immigration/story/0,,2187100,00.html