Indians have now become UK’s biggest overseas born population

LONDON: Indians have now become UK's biggest overseas born population.

Data released by Office of National Statistics on Friday shows that the number of Indians living in UK is four times more than the Chinese and Americans, over three times more than those of Bangladeshi and German origin and two times more than those from Ireland.

The number of Indians have grown by half since 2004 with 7.6 lakh of them living in UK now. India is followed by those of Polish origin (8.88 lakhs), Pakistani (5.16 lakh), Irish (3.78 lakhs), German (2.97 lakhs) and Bangladeshis (2.28 lakhs).

UK is also home to 2.2 lakh people of South African origin, 1.97 lakh who are Americans, 1.91 lakh from China and 1.85 lakhs from Nigeria.

The latest numbers also point to the growing clout Indians enjoy in British society.

The importance of India to UK was reflected with British prime minister visiting India over three times since taking over office in 2010, the only country he has travelled to so many times in his first term in office.

The number of immigrants living in the UK went up by more than 2.6 million in a decade and there is now one immigrant for every seven people born in Britain.

In 2004, there were 5,258,000 people living in Britain who were born overseas and 53,907,000 people who were born in Britain.

By 2013, the estimates said, there were 7,921,000 people in Britain who were born abroad, and 55,309,000 born in the UK.

The changing face of British streets also changed the election results during the landmark general election in UK in May.

The House of Commons welcomed the highest number of MPs from ethnic minority backgrounds. As many as 42 MPs are now from ethnic minority backgrounds as against 27 earlier.

Britain is often considered the world's most diverse country.

By 2040, the number of foreign-born and non-white residents in UK is expected to double and account for a third of the population.

One of the world's best experts on demographics - Professor David Coleman from the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford recently predicted that by 2070, white Britons may actually become a minority.

Prime minister David Cameron has gone on record saying his party will give Britain its first Asian prime minister.

The longest serving MP of Indian origin Keith Vaz said "I am convinced that in my lifetime a person of Indian origin will become PM of UK. The Indian diaspora is one of the largest and most historical of ethnic groups in the UK, we can already see the influence of this community in politics, and indeed the potential for British-Indian leaders to emerge to the very top positions including the Premiership of the UK".