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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 June 2025
After 1991, the direction, pace and scale of immigration into Britain changed. From less than 2 million in 1991, the foreign-born population in Britain as registered in the census rose to just under 10 million in 2021. The growth was uneven; between 1991 and 2001 it was over 1 million, sped up towards the end of the 1990s, reached almost 3 million between 2001 and 2011 and continued its upward trend. The proportion of people born abroad in the total UK population also increased, from just over 6 per cent in 1991, 8 in 2001, just over 12 in 2011 and 15 in 2021. In that year one in six residents of England and Wales was born outside the UK. Over half of the increase in the total population of England and Wales, from 56.1 million 2011 to 59.6 million in 2021, was the result of positive net migration – the number of people arriving in the UK minus the people leaving.
In terms of immigration Britain did not stand out internationally. Davies has stated that the 2001 proportion mentioned above was ‘a rather lower percentage’ compared to other European countries, such as France or Germany. And not all foreign-born individuals registered in the UK census can be regarded as immigrants who settled permanently in Britain. Many of them were students and short-term contract workers, who were expected to leave after their studies and contracts were finished or terminated earlier, although many of these individuals stayed in Britain, often with their families who had come over.
Nevertheless, the number of immigrants in Britain expanded dramatically between 1991 and 2021. The increasing proportional presence of immigrants appeared as emigration from Britain declined. The Times in 1962 mentioned a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit which stated that between 1951 and 1960 ‘net immigration into Britain was almost exactly balanced by the net outflow of United Kingdom citizens’. In 1964, 60,000 more people left the country than arrived here. Nine years later, the figure was 41,000. During the next 15 years an average of 5,000 more people per year emigrated from Britain than came here.
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