Census reveals one eighth of city residents born overseas

Political reporter Phil Corrigan investigates how the make-up of the city has altered in the last decade – taking into account the effects of Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic

NEW census data shows more than one-in-eight Stoke-ontrent residents were born in other countries.

There were 33,836 foreign-born individuals living in Stoke-on-trent on Census Day last year, out of a total population of 258,368.

This was up from 20,714 in 2011 – when the previous census was carried out – out of a population of 249,008. The new figures from the Office for National Statistics show more than half of Stoke-on-trent’s foreign-born population arrived in the UK between 2011 and 2021.

Pakistan was the most common country of origin, with 5,951, followed by Romania with 3,822 – up from just 101 in 2011. Poland, India and Iraq complete the top five.

The increase in arrivals from Romania, locally and nationally, since 2011 was due to the lifting of working restrictions in 2014. The figures include people who have gained British citizenship, as well as short-term migrants and students.

In England and Wales the number of Romanian-born residents increased from 80,000 to 539,000.

Stoke-on-trent has the second highest proportion of non-uk born residents in Staffordshire, at 13.1 per cent, compared to 6.8 per cent in Newcastle and 2.6 per cent in the Staffordshire Moorlands. Only East Staffordshire has a higher proportion, with 13.9 per cent.

But all areas of Staffordshire had relatively fewer residents born outside the UK than the country as a whole. There were 10 million nonuk born residents across England and Wales on Census Day, equating to 16.8 per cent of the population.

Census Deputy Director Jon Wroth-smith said: “The census paints a picture of how the makeup of the population has changed in the past decade. That decade, of course, saw us leave the EU as well as live with the pandemic.

“While these events may have had an impact on people’s decisions or ability to migrate or travel at a given time, the census tells us about the change over the whole decade – who was living here in March 2021, compared with March 2011.

“We can see Romanians have been a big driver in this change, while there have also been increases due to migration from India, Pakistan and Poland, as well as southern European countries such as Italy.

“We can also see that migration in the year prior to census was lower in 2021 than it was in 2011.

“This is likely, in large part, due to the various travel restrictions in place during the coronavirus pandemic.”

London remained the region with the highest proportion of non-uk born residents (40.6 per cent), while the North East of England had the lowest (3.7 per cent).

The Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford noted there were 3.9 million EU passport holders living in England and Wales on Census Day – fewer than the 5.5 million EU citizens who applied to stay in the country after Brexit through the EU settlement scheme.

Observatory director Madeleine Sumption said: “One of the main reasons the number of EU citizens living in the UK on Census day is smaller than the number of applicants to the EU Settlement Scheme is that people who had previously lived in the UK had left.

“One of the big unknowns is how many have returned over the past year and a half, or might still do so in future.”

Ms Sumption also noted that the foreign-born population in England and Wales increased more slowly between 2011 and 2021 than it had in the previous decade – 3.4 percentage points compared to 4.5. She said the pandemic and lower EU migration since the 2016 Brexit vote would have been factors behind this fall.