POLAND is now the most common overseas country of birth in Britain after overtaking India for the first time, new figures show.
While across the UK, Poles – some 831,000 residents – represented 9.7 per cent of the total non-UK born population, in Scotland their number - 76,000 – represented 19.3 per cent of the non-UK born population.
The estimated total of 831,000 Polish-born residents is a jump of almost three quarters of a million compared with 2004, when the country joined the EU.
This compared with 795,000 people born in India, which had been the most common foreign country of birth for the previous 11 years.
Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said: "Traditionally, the UK's relationship with Ireland and the former colonies have been key factors in shaping its migrant population.
"What we can see from current data is that in recent years the EU has played a similar role."
Overall, one in eight people living in the UK last year was born abroad, while one in 12 had non-British nationality - compared with one in 11 and one in 20 in 2004 respectively.
There were 3.2 million EU citizens in Britain in 2015; a figure which has almost tripled in just over a decade.
Separate figures also showed that more than a quarter, 27.5 per cent, of live births in England and Wales last year were to women born outside the UK; the highest level on record.
The 2015 figures for Scotland show an estimated 393,000, 7.4 per cent, of the usually resident population of Scotland were born outside of the UK, an increase of 12,000 on the previous year. In 2005, the number was 221,000.
Some 203,000 of those foreign born residents were born outside the EU; 51.7 per cent.
The five most common countries of birth were Poland at 76,000, India at 26,000, the Republic of Ireland at 20,000, the US at 18,000 and Pakistan also at 18,000.
Dariusz Laska, charge d'affaires at the Polish Embassy, said Poles prided themselves on having the highest rate of individuals in employment or further education among all ethnic groups in Britain.
"Poles have also opened more than 22,000 businesses and create new workplaces. Higher wages rather than social security are the primary motivation for 84 per cent of Poles migrating to the UK," he stressed.
Meantime, new figures – the first since the Brexit vote - showed that net migration to the UK, the difference between the numbers arriving and leaving, remained at near record levels at an estimated 327,000 in the year to March.
This was a slight fall compared with the previous 12 months but still the third highest level on record and more than three times the target level of the UK Government.
Nicola White, of the Office for National Statistics, which published the figures, said: "Net migration remains at record levels, although the recent trend is broadly flat."
Lord Green, of campaign group Migration Watch UK, said: "Unfortunately, these figures show no progress in reducing net migration from the record level of one third of a million a year.
"The referendum result demonstrated public concern about the scale of immigration. It simply cannot be allowed to continue."
Shadow Home Office minister Carolyn Harris said: "Once again, the Tory promise on immigration lies in tatters and net migration remains more than three times their target."
Immigration minister Robert Goodwill insisted reducing the number of migrants coming to the UK would be a “priority” for the negotiations to leave the EU.
He added: "We are also committed to reducing non-EU migration across all visa routes in order to bring net migration down to sustainable levels as soon as possible."
He insisted Government reforms "are working" but added: "There is no doubt there is far more to do."
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