Indians make up largest number of non-UK born residents in England, Wales

India remained the most common country of birth outside the UK in 2021.

Britain's 2021 census data revealed that Indians constituted the largest chunk of residents born outside the country in England and Wales at 1.5%. This means that of the nearly one in six people living in England and Wales last year who were born outside the country, Indians were at 1.5 per cent of the residents.

A woman with an umbrella and the Elizabeth Tower also known as Big Ben are reflected in a puddle in London. (AP)

UK’s office for national statistics (ONS) found that India remained the most common country of birth outside of the UK last year at 920,000 people, followed by Poland at 743,000 people or 1.2 per cent of residents and Pakistan at 624,000 (1 per cent).

“One in six usual residents of England and Wales were born outside the UK, an increase of 2.5 million since 2011, from 7.5 million (13.4 per cent) to 10 million (16.8 per cent),” the ONS said.

“India remained the most common country of birth outside the UK in 2021,” it added.

The top three countries of birth outside the UK for England and Wales remain unchanged as India, Poland and Pakistan since the last census 10 years ago, with the numbers rising across all categories – India from 694,000, Poland from 579,000 and Pakistan from 482,000 in 2011.

London remained the region with both the largest proportion of people born outside the UK and the largest proportion of people with non-UK passports.

In 2021, more than four in 10 (40.6 per cent) usual residents in London were non-UK born, and more than one in five (23.3 per cent) had a non-UK passport.

This is a marginal increase since 2011, when 36.7 per cent of London residents were non-UK born and 21.0 per cent had a non-UK passport.

“The census paints a picture of how the make-up 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,” Jon Wroth-Smith, Census deputy director said.

“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,” he said.