EU migrants mostly from six nations

Richard Ford
, Home Correspondent
The Times
Polish workers in the Braeburn apple orchard at Stocks Farm in Worcestershire. Poles, Italians, Spaniards, Hungarians, Romanians and Portuguese people accounted for almost 80 per cent of the increase in migrants to the UK
Polish workers in the Braeburn apple orchard at Stocks Farm in Worcestershire. Poles, Italians, Spaniards, Hungarians, Romanians and Portuguese people accounted for almost 80 per cent of the increase in migrants to the UK
JOE GIDDENS/PA
Richard Ford
, Home Correspondent
The Times

Six European countries drove 80 per cent of the increase in EU migrants living in Britain over the past five years.

The number of migrants from other EU countries living in the UK rose from 2.5 million in 2011 to more than 3.2 million last year, a rise of almost 700,000, the report from Oxford university’s Migration Observatory said.

Poland, Romania, Spain, Italy, Hungary and Portugal sent the most, up from just over a million in 2011 to almost 1.6m last year. They accounted for 79 per cent of the increase.

Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory, said: “Some drivers are likely to remain in place for some years, such as the relatively low wages in new EU member states, particularly Romania. Others could