Are there really 8 million foreigners in Britain?

Reports emerged on Wednesday that there are now “8 million foreigners living in Britain”, leading to questions being raised over the phrasing of this statement.

— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) August 25, 2015
Wednesday's Telegraph front page: 8 million foreigners living in Britain #tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/C7VjkIGTHh

Is this true?
The 8 million figure refers to the number of people living in the UK who were not born in Britain. According to ONS data, the figure in 2013 was 7.9 million. An increase in net migration since is likely to have pushed that past 8 million. However, the number includes British nationals who were born abroad. The latest estimate for non-UK born, non-UK nationals living in Britain is 4.9 million, the ONS said, just under 8% of the population (or one in 13 people). Related: Non-UK born residents likely to exceed 8 million in latest figures, thinktank says. Notable examples of Britons born abroad include Boris Johnson, Joanna Lumley and Mo Farah. Would you consider the mayor of London or the Olympic gold medallist and world champion foreigners? The standfirst of the Daily Telegraph story also seems to infer a connection between the 8 million figure and the “migrant crisis that continues to engulf Europe”. But there is no connection between the two. Between 2,000 and 5,000 migrants have reached Calais, which is between 1% and 2.5% of the more than 200,000 who have arrived in Italy and Greece. Moreover, Britain has received a fraction of the asylum seekers in the EU: Germany deals with more in a month than the UK does in a year.

Is 8 million people a big number?
8 million is about 12.5% of the UK population, or one in eight people. Although the figure has increased over the past decade, from 8.9% in 2004, there is not an “immigrant population” that can be considered too large or too small in absolute terms. The figure is a reflection of recent migration flows and a country’s history. Official data shows the UK proportion is higher than in Italy (9.5%) and slightly more than France (12%). It is slightly less than Spain (13%). And it is lower than Belgium (16%), Sweden (16%), Switzerland (27%) and Australia (28%). Related: 10 truths about Europe’s migrant crisis.  In Germany, 20.3% of the population has a migrant background, while there are 10.9 million immigrants living in the country (about 13.5% of the population). The UK is not exceptional in this regard.

Do such errors matter?
The issue in this case is more than just a cavalier use of statistics. There are risks when the perception of an issue and the facts do not align. It generates fear among the public (concern for immigration is at an all-time high in the UK) and in turn this makes it more difficult for politicians and policymakers to act in a cool-headed manner, especially if they are worried about their approval ratings.

So why would anyone want to mislead in this way?
If you wanted to advocate tighter border controls or make a case against immigration, helping create a context in which the public believes the number of foreigners is higher than it actually is – or stretching the very definition of the term to give it a pejorative twist – would be a smart tactic.


http://www.theguardian.com/media/reality-check/2015/aug/26/daily-telegraph-8-million-foreigners-britain

Australia. At 30 June 2013, 27.7% of the estimated resident population (ERP) was born overseas (6.4 million people).

In 2013, over 40 million foreign-born representing 13% of the population resided in the United States

the UK is right around average for a western nation
so If you want to be able to determine if a news source is full of shit than just see if they publish stuff about you having a lot of immigrants