Influx raises UK population close to 61m

Immigration has been a key factor in boosting the UK's population, lifting the total by 2m since 2001 to just under 61m, according to official figures.

Net migration - the difference between new arrivals and those leaving the country - accounted for 52 per cent of population growth during the 12 months to mid-2007 and 55 per cent in the previous year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Inward migration last year reached its highest level since the current method of counting was introduced 17 years ago, with 605,000 long-term migrants arriving in the 12 months to mid-2007.

Outward migration was also a record at 406,000, reflecting the large number of Britons and short-term migrants who left the country.

Rising births and falling deaths accounted for most of the remaining population growth, officials said. But even here immigration played a part by helping raise the number of women of child-bearing age. A quarter of children born in England and Wales last year were to women who were born overseas.

Some 6.3m of the UK's current residents, or just over 10 per cent, were born overseas. The most common foreign country of birth was India, followed by Ireland and then Poland.