80pc of 15-year rise in the UK’S population ‘is from migrants’

MORE than 80 per cent of the rise in Britain’s population between 2001 and 2016 was because of migration, a campaign group has claimed.

Migration Watch UK said that 3.1 million migrants had come to the UK over that period and 2.5million children had at least one parent born abroad.

When adjusted for migrants who had died, the figures suggest that 5.4 million of the 6.6 million increase in the UK’S population over that period was because of migration.

The group said that the report “shines a light on the elephant in the room”. Migration Watch used data on births to foreign-born parents and estimates of deaths of children of migrants to calculate the “indirect contribution” of immigration to population change.

Over the period covered by the report, estimates of the number of people living in the UK went up from 59.1million to 65.7 million.

Lord Green of Deddington, the group’s chairman, said the Government had been “remarkably coy” about “the true impact” of immigration on public services.

He said: “This has meant that very few people realise that over 80 per cent of our population increase in recent years has been due to immigration.”

The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) population estimates said 41 per cent of a 392,000 year-on-year rise from 2016 to 2017 occurred from natural change, with the rest ascribed to net migration.

The report noted that current and past international migration also has “indirect effects” on the size of the population as it changes the numbers of births and deaths in the UK.

But a child born and living in the UK is not counted as a migrant under the internationally recognised definition used by the ONS.

Migration Watch said grandchildren and great-grandchildren of immigrants had not been included in the analysis.

The latest estimates of net migration to the UK will be published today.

The Home Office said: “We are committed to bringing net migration down to sustainable levels.”