Today, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published an article on the changing picture of short-term international migration, England and Wales: Census 2021. This is the second of a series of detailed articles on the topic of international migration that we are producing using data from Census 2021.

The article provides analysis of short-term residents - those who were born outside the UK and intended to stay in the country for less than 12 months – in England and Wales on Census Day. It includes information on their country of birth, economic activity and industry, as well as other characteristics. 

The main findings from the analysis presented in this article include:

• There were 136,000 non-UK-born short-term residents recorded by Census 2021; 45% were men and 55% were women, while a third (33%) were aged between 20 and 24 years.
• Compared with the 2011 Census, the proportion of EU-born short-term residents fell from 35% to 25% in 2021, while the proportion of non-EU-born residents rose from 65% to 75%.
• Almost a third of non-UK-born short-term residents lived in London (29%), while Westminster (and City of London) (1.4%), and Cardiff (0.6%) were the English and Welsh local authorities with the highest percentage of non-UK-born short-term residents in their total population.
• China was the most common country of birth for non-UK-born short-term residents (21%) followed by India (10%) and Romania (5%); in 2011, India, China and United States were the most common, while Romania was not present in the top 10.
• Of non-UK-born short-term residents, 42% were economically inactive students, with 45% of this population born in China.

Read the article

You can keep up to date with our Census 2021 Release plans on the ONS website.