North's Population Grows By 10,000 New Migrants

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) has published figures illustrating the impact of changing migration patterns in the North.

Figures show 32,000 people came to live in the North in the year to June 2007 and 22,000 people left.

Migration has added almost 10,000 residents to the Northern population in each of the last two years and has a greater effect on the population than the excess of births over deaths. This change in demographic trends has implications for policy and service delivery.

NISRA has published a migration report alongside the new mid-2007 population estimates that examines these new migration figures in detail. Among some of the key points are:

• After decades of emigration exceeding immigration, and a period of balanced migration flows in the 1990s, the recent period from mid 2004 to mid 2007 has seen immigration exceed emigration by 26,000.
• Around half of those registering with the Worker Registration Scheme (WRS) intended to stay for less than 3 months when they registered. Analysis of National Insurance data also suggests around 40% of foreign nationals who registered were no longer being picked up in tax or benefit returns a year later, and there is similar evidence from the Republic of Ireland. By number, Polish migrants are the largest group of migrants from the new EU states, accounting for about 60% of such migrants.
• The School Census (2007) shows that about 3,500 primary school children have a language other than English as their 'first' language. This is about 2% of the primary school population, and a large increase on the corresponding figure (2,400) for the previous year. For secondary school children, the increase has been from 1,100 to 1,700 (1% of the secondary school population).