Ten million people who were born outside the UK are now living in England and Wales, an increase of 2.5 million in the past 10 years. The newly released data comes from the 2021 Census, a snapshot of who is living where.
The increase has largely been driven by a huge increase in Romanians. Figures released on November 2 by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed a 576% rise in residents who were born in Romania – from 80,000 in 2011 to 539,000 in 2021.
The large increase in the number of those born in Romania followed the lifting of working restrictions across the European Union in 2014. India remained the most common country of birth outside the UK – with those 925,000 people making up 1.5% of the population.
