How immigration has fueled a jaw-dropping rise in Birmingham’s population

crowd in birmingham city centre

Almost 60 per cent of Birmingham’s population growth over the past decade has come from immigration.

Between 2007 and 2016 a total of 136,357 people moved from abroad to Birmingham, new figures from the Office of National Statistics show.

At the same time almost 76,000 people left the city for a different country, which left a net gain of 60,393 people.

That net figure of 60,393 would make up five per cent of Birmingham’s population, assuming they were all still living in the city.

It worked out to 58 per cent of all population growth in the city between 2006 and 2016.

Birmingham is one of the most in-demand places to live in the country

Other factors that can influence the population are births, deaths and people moving within the UK.

The latest figures show that more babies are being born in Birmingham than people dying, however many more people are leaving the city for elsewhere in Britain than choosing to move here.

Other parts of the West Midlands have seen population growth that is driven almost entirely by immigration from overseas.

Coventry had an extra 52,782 people in 2016 compared to 2006, and the equivalent of 98 per cent of that figure came from immigration. Newham has seen its population grow by more than 100,000 from abroad in a decade.

Assuming that all those people were still in the east London borough, that would mean that 31 per cent of its population arrived from overseas in the past 10 years.

Local AuthorityPopulation change 2007-16Population change from immigration% due to immigration
Birmingham103,72660,39358.2
Coventry52,78251,74398.0
Dudley9,7882,75428.1
Sandwell30,19616,52554.7
Solihull94124725.0
Walsall19,2615,07426.3
Wolverhampton13,73212,14088.4

Originally published on Birmingham Live