Researchers from Oxford University has found that the number of foreign-born residents in Wales raised by 82% in 10 years, with Poles being the largest minority in the country.
The study was based on statistics from Wales’ 2011 census compared with the data collected ten years earlier, during 2001 census. During this period, the number of Polish born residents in Wales increased by 1,163% from 1,427 in 2001 to 18,023 in 2011, making Polish community the largest minority in the country.
According to the researchers the number of migrants living in Wales has soared in recent years and in some cities the migrants populations has doubled. Dr Carlos Vargas-Silva, senior researcher at the university said: “The biggest change has been the increase in the Polish-born population, which increased more than twenty-fold, becoming the biggest migrant group in Wales. This has been particularly apparent in Merthyr Tydfil which saw the second largest percentage increase in its migrant population of anywhere in Great Britain.”
The population of Wales in 2011 was 3,063,456, with about 167,871 of those born outside the UK.
