More than 3.5 million EU citizens live in England and Wales, according to figures from the British Office of Statistics (ONS). Based on census data, their number has increased by 1.1 million in ten years, and they make up more than a third (36.4 percent) of the non-British people living in these two countries of the United Kingdom, MTI reports.
The United Kingdom left the European Union on January 31, 2020. However, EU citizens who have settled legally and in a way of living by the end of 2020, until the end of the 11-month transition period that began after Britain’s termination of EU membership (Brexit), can continue to remain in the state, while retaining all their acquired rights. To do this, they have to apply for a residence permit for an indefinite period, the so-called settled status (EU settlement status).
According to data from the British Home Office, nearly 170,000 Hungarian citizens have done this so far.
This means that a number approximately as many as the population officially settled in the United Kingdom is equal to the population of the second largest city, Debrecen.
In principle, the deadline for applications expired on June 30 last year, but the British government continues to encourage those entitled to submit the necessary documents, because the authorities will accept and evaluate legitimate settlement applications that meet the criteria despite the deadline.
According to data released by the British Statistics Office on Wednesday, there were 59.6 million people living in England and Wales at the time of last year’s census. Of these, 49.6 million (83.2 per cent) were born in the UK, i.e.
The number of foreign-born permanent residents reached just 10 million (16.8%) in 2021.
Indians top the top ten foreign-born people living in England and Wales with a population of about 920,000, followed by Poles, who number 743,000. Romanians are also among the top ten who moved from the Central and Eastern European countries of the European Union: they are in fourth place with about 540,000 people. Irish, Italians, and Germans are also present in the ten most populous groups of EU-born residents of England and Wales.
