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Research paper 12.1
Key facts

 

 







   Key facts on immigration
• 83% of the British public favour an annual limit on immigration. [1]
Net migration into the UK has averaged 166,000 a year over the last 7 years. [2]
• The UK’s population is projected to rise by 7.2 million from 2004 to 2031 – 6.0 million (83%) of this rise is due to immigration.[3] That’s equivalent to two cities the size of Cambridge every year, or 6 cities the size of Birmingham over the 27 year period, needing to be built because of immigration.[4]
• 65,000 new homes will be required in England each year for the period 2003-26 for immigrants.[5]
• In 2005 11.8 million non-EU nationals arrived in the UK.[6] How many left? No one knows – we have no embarkation controls.
• In Inner London 58% of all births are to foreign-born mothers.[7]
• 70% of net international migration is to London. In recent years a net 100,000 migrants a year have been arriving in London and there has been a net movement of 100,000 existing residents to the rest of the UK.[8]
• The cost of running the Immigration and Nationality Department of the Home Office rose from £300 million in 1998-1999 to 1.5 billion in 2004-5. [9] Legal aid costs of £170m a year are additional.
• England is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. It has nearly twice the population density of Germany, 4 times that of France and 12 times that of the USA.
• Since 1997 about 340,000 asylum seekers have been refused permission to stay here but only 100,000 have been recorded as having been removed from the UK. [10]
• And those with families whose claims have failed continue to receive benefits worth an average of £15,000 a year tax free.[11]

Revised 17 January 2007
NOTES:
[1] Ipsos MORI August 2006
[2] ONS: International Migration Series MN no. 31 and News Release 2 November 2006
[3] Comparison of Government Actuary’s 2004-based principal and natural change population projections. See http://www.gad.gov.uk/population/2004/methodology/mignote.htm
[4] The population of Birmingham is 977,000 and Cambridge’s population is 109,000 according to the 2001 census.
[5] ODPM statistical release 2006/ 0042 of 14 March 2006
[6] Home Office: Control Of immigration: Statistics 2005
[7] ONS Birth Statistics 2005 - Series FM no.35
[8] ONS – Internal and International Migration.
[9] Home Office Departmental Report 2005-6
[10] Home Office Asylum Statistics 1997-2005 and Q3, 2006. Figures exclude dependants.
[11] Home Office Press Release 295/2003 24.10.2003 – ‘Moving even 1,000 [families] off support will save £15 million
in support costs in addition to any potential savings on legal aid’

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