Shropshire Star

Number of Polish nationals living in UK ‘down 120,000’

Polish remains the most common non-British nationality.

Published
Celtic fans with a Polish flag prior to a football match

The number of Poles living in the UK has dropped by 120,000 in two years, new figures suggest.

Around 900,000 Polish nationals were resident in the country in 2019, according to estimates by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This is down from 1.02 million in 2017.

Polish remains the most common non-British nationality in the UK, however.

It has held the top spot since 2007.

Romanian has consolidated its position as the second most common non-British nationality, up from an estimated 411,000 in 2017 to 450,000 in 2019.

Romanian has been in second place since 2017.

POLITICS Migration Population
(PA graphic)

Indian is ranked third in the 2019 list (365,000 nationals), followed by Irish (320,000) and Italian (304,000).

Countries further down the list include Pakistan in seventh place, up one place from 2018, while Lithuania has slipped from seventh to ninth.

The ONS figures also show that London remains the region of the country with the highest proportion of non-British nationals in its population (an estimated 22.3%).

The top two local authorities are in London: Kensington & Chelsea (34.4%) and Westminster (32.4%).

They are followed by Corby (30.6%), Cambridge (30.3%) and Brent (29.4%).

The ONS data is based on a survey of households and does not cover most people living in communal establishments, some NHS accommodation, or students living in halls of residence who have non-UK resident parents.

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