Migrant figures may be incorrect, says report

MIGRANT populations of many British towns may be thousands higher or lower than official statistics indicate, according to a report.

Estimates of the number of foreign-born residents in some local areas may be ‘materially incorrect’ – raising the risk that services receive inadequate funding, the Social Market Foundation (SMF) paper claims.

The think-tank said a major overhaul was needed, and called for greater use of commercial data from firms such as Facebook.

SMF migration researcher Jonathan Thomas said: “Accurate data on local populations is essential for planning and providing public services, but our official statistics on migration and local populations are severely limited and innovative new thinking is needed.

“Commercial data like that held by the big technology firms could play a part in giving national and local planners a more accurate and responsive picture of local population movements, allowing them to plan and manage better.”

The analysis points out that Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates of non-UK born populations in local authority areas can have large confidence intervals.

In some cases, the potential variation amounts to more than 10 per cent of the entire local population, according to the report.