Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Sheilbh]

Yaaaaay - census release

One in six people living in England and Wales born outside UK, census reveals
Non-UK-born population increased to 10 million in 2021, latest figures show, a 33% rise in 10 years
Carmen Aguilar García, Michael Goodier and Pamela Duncan
Wed 2 Nov 2022 15.32 GMT
First published on Wed 2 Nov 2022 11.04 GMT

One in six people living in England and Wales in 2021 were born outside the UK, according to the latest census figures.

About 10 million people usually resident in England and Wales were born outside the UK on census day, 21 March 2021, up from 7.5 million at the time of the last census in 2011.

The lowest immigrant populations were in Wales and the north-east, where one in 14 usual residents were born outside the UK. The non-UK-born population increased by 33% in 10 years, up from 7.5 million.

More than half of the total population increase in England and Wales in the past 10 years is because of positive net migration – the difference between those who immigrated into and emigrated out of England and Wales.

India remained the most common country of birth outside the UK – accounting for 1.5% of all usual residents – but the biggest increase of people born outside the UK has been among those from Romania, with six times as many people living here in 2021 as there were in 2011. This makes Romania the fourth most common non-UK country of birth.

Italy also entered the top 10 non-UK countries of birth, doubling the number of residents in 10 years from 135,000 to 277,000.

Those born in the European Union made up 3.6 million, a third of the total non-UK-born population. This is up from 2.5 million in 2011 census and from the 1.4 million EU-born residents registered in the 2001 census.

Of the 10 million residents born outside the UK, four in 10 arrived in the past decade while a third of them arrived before 2001.

More than four in 10 local authorities in England and Wales reported that their EU-born population had grown by two percentage points or more, compared with a national average of 1.6 points.

Boston, the local authority with the highest leave vote in the 2016 Brexit referendum, witnessed the highest growth in EU nationals in the period between 2011 and 2021, from 12.4% to 20%.

The local authority with the highest increase in non-UK-born residents was Barking and Dagenham: its non-UK-born population grew by 10 percentage points in the past decade, from 31% in the 2011 census to 41% in 2021.

Across England and Wales, the number of EU-born residents has increased by 25% in the past 10 years, from 5.1 million to 6.4 million, driven mainly by the growth in the number of Romanian migrants.

However, the ONS estimates indicate that net migration among EU citizens – the difference between the number of EU citizens entering the UK as opposed to leaving – has slowed since the Brexit referendum, which took place in 2016, halfway between the last two censuses.

Wednesday's release also provides data on the oldest and youngest populations across England and Wales. The east of England witnessed the greatest population growth, with close to a half a million more residents in the region than there were 10 years ago.

With a median age of 35, London remains England's youngest region, and the south-west recorded the oldest median age at 44 years. However, some local authorities were significantly older, with North Norfolk recording a median age of 54 years, Rother (53) and East Lindsey (52).

Tower Hamlets in London was the youngest, with a median age of 30, followed by Nottingham and Manchester and the university cities of Cambridge and Oxford (all on 31 years).

The data provided by the census – the latest of which took place on 21 March 2021 – is instrumental in national and local government decisions on funding in areas including health and education, determining where houses should be built and projecting future social care needs.

The first census in Great Britain took place in 1801 and has been carried out every 10 years since other than during the second world war. Statisticians consider 1841 the first modern census, when the head of each household was given a form to fill in on behalf of everyone in the household.

More detailed figures illustrating changes in the ethnicity, gender identity, religion, language and education of the people of England and Wales are due to be released later this year along with data on health, housing, unpaid care, disability and work while data on the UK's armed forces and veterans.

Interesting breakdown on the arrival of non-UK born residents. Obviously there'll be a recency bias because there more likely to have been people from earlier points (for example foreign students):


Also just some incredible visualisation tools. This is amazing of deprivation in Haringey in North London where the East Coast Mainline splits into a wealthy west and poor east:


Interestingly as well it looks like covid doesn't show up as expected in the internal migration data - still overwhelmingly young people who've moved to university towns (and student areas). Slightly love that apparently the married gays like settling down by the seaside (obviously Brighton is still the capital):
https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/maps/choropleth/population/living-arrangements/living-arrangements-11a/living-in-a-same-sex-couple-married-or-in-a-civil-partnership

Visualisation tool here - and this is just the second tranche, lots more to come:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/maps

[Josquius]

Fascinating. I do love maps.

Interesting how all the trendy areas stand out so blue. On a national and local level.

Whats with the blackpool gay colony though?

[Sheilbh]

Whats with the blackpool gay colony though?

It's Blackpool

I loved that as well - and one in the eye for Manchester, which is always good.

[mongers]

Yaaaaay - census release
....
Also just some incredible visualisation tools. This is amazing of deprivation in Haringey in North London where the East Coast Mainline splits into a wealthy west and poor east:

....

Oh dear, looks like I used to live squarely in the Wealthy areas, odd as it didn't seem like it at the time.

Thanks for the links, Shelf, cool maps.

[Sheilbh]

Thanks - it is worth playing around. Lots of interest.

Separately rather amazing catalogue of lines taken by the Tory press in the last two months:


"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them, I have others"

[The Larch]

"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them, I have others"

The one that is just a few hours apart is priceless. 

[Sheilbh]

The one that is just a few hours apart is priceless. 

Yeah - that's Christopher Hope the Telegraph's Politics Editor who has singlehandedly written over 200 stories on a new royal yacht. Basically every time you see that story pop up it'll be from a story originally by him - I imagine he has them already pre-written by now "hopes rise"-"Government plans"-"hopes dashed"

Separately, striking stat on the census data - non-UK born residents now higher in England and Wales than the US. I imagine it's similar in some other European countries too. Still way behind, say, Canada and Australia but an interesting shift.

[Josquius]

Further evidence presenting figures on a England wide level is daft.

Whats with the blackpool gay colony though?

It's Blackpool

I loved that as well - and one in the eye for Manchester, which is always good.

Is Blackpool known as a NW Brighton? Is this new or has it always been so?

Honestly I've never heard of Blackpool being particularly gay.
Though thinking about Blackpools old image I can see where it would appeal to clichéd elderly gay guys.

[Sheilbh]

Further evidence presenting figures on a England wide level is daft.

Don't - I've no doubt everyone else probably already thinks it's mad that we don't even do a national census for the entire UK

But you can zoom in and, as you expect, lots of variance swathes of rural England and Wales without many non-UK born folks. It looks like the closest to the average are probably Cardiff, Oldham and Bolton who are all around the 16.5-17% mark.

I suppose the counter is that America is even more diverse and varied than England

Is Blackpool known as a NW Brighton? Is this new or has it always been so?

Honestly I've never heard of Blackpool being particularly gay.

I think Blackpool's always been a bit of a Brighton of the North-West. But I could be wrong?

Though thinking about Blackpools old image I can see where it would appeal to clichéd elderly gay guys.

Zooming in I am very pleased that the stereotypical elderly gay couple does seem to be a thing in choosing where to live - above average in Blackpool, Brighton, Scarborough, Margate etc. Just love a bit of faded seaside glamour and fun.

I think they're right FWIW. Second I retire I'm moving to the sea.

Edit: Just zoomed into the above average bit in South Wales - and, yes, it's Barry Island

[garbon]

When you retire, the sea may be in London.

[Sheilbh]

I am choosing to interpret that as a comment on my youth

[garbon]

I am choosing to interpret that as a comment on my youth

[Sheilbh]

Popbitch, so pure gossip. But Jesus Christ

>> Welcome Matt <<
Hancock's 6x half hours

Between him gorging on bugs, balls and arseholes in I'm A Celebrity and getting thrown out of helicopters in Celeb SAS, we're going to be seeing a lot of Matt Hancock on our tellies over the coming months.

If it was up to Matt Hancock, we'd be seeing even more of him too. He's been overheard working up a pitch for a show of his own in which a camera crew would follow him and his girlfriend on their journey as they fix up a second property on the continent.

A format he's taken to calling Hancock's Holiday House.

[Zanza]

Sounds like a candidate to be the next prime minister or at least one of the great offices.

[Sheilbh]

I mean he was Health Secretary and I think given the size of their budget, the importance of that department in modern Britain and that they're biggest employer in the country there's a very strong case that is a 21st century great office of state in a way that Foreign Secretary - and maybe Home Secretary aren't.

He was a protege of Osborne as the next big thing (after Osborne, obviously).

But his vibe since 2016 has very much been the Theon Greyjoy of Tory politics - just shuffling from one mortification to the next. And now he's going on a show where the public can vote to force him to do humiliating trials (and they will - at every single opportunity). At this point I can only assume it's a kink.

Edit: It is really amazing how many people absolutely relish giving Hancock a kicking from all factions of the Tory party. I can only assume that when he was coming up the ranks as a very close ally to George Osborne, he was a prick to absolutely everyone on the way up if they didn't have a direct line to the PM/Chancellor.