Over 2m immigrants arrive in five years
By Philip Johnston,
Home Affairs Editor
The Telegraph
10/10/2007
More than 2.2million immigrants arrived in the UK between 2001 and 2005, figures showed .
Over the same period 870,000 foreign-born people left the country, which meant that the foreign-born resident population grew by 1.4million in a five-year period by far the fastest rate of growth in history.
At the same time, the UK-born resident population fell by half a million, with 897,000 leaving the country for a year or more and 394,000 returning.
One in 10 of the population was now foreign-born, compared to eight per cent in 2001.
The figures were published by the Office for National Statistics in a report to a House of Lords inquiry into the accuracy of migration data.
They showed that migrants added 939,000 to the UK's population in the five years to last summer an extra 515 people every day.
The overseas-born population of working age increased by 26 per cent to 947,000, while the British-born working population fell by 44,000.
About 40 per cent of long-term migrants to the UK in 2005 were aged 15 to 24, compared to 13 per cent for the UK population as a whole.
The ONS recently revised upwards by one third its assumptions for future immigration from 145,000 to 190,000 a year.
David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: “This is yet more evidence showing the real need for a limit on non-EU migrants coming to the UK.
Only by doing this can we control immigration.”
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