Foreign population up

NEARLY one in ten UK residents last year were foreign citizens, according to a report.

Numbers rose by 6.4 per cent to reach 5.95 million between 2015 and 2016, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found.

It means 9.2 per cent of the population are from overseas, the think tank's "International Migration Outlook" report showed.

More Iranians, some 4,780, made asylum claims in the UK than any other nationality, followed by Pakistanis (3,701) and Iraqis (3,644).

For every one million people living in Britain, 593 asylum applications were filed in 2016 compared to the OECD average of 1,283. Germany, which had an open-door policy, had the highest rate at 8,952, followed by Austria and Greece (4,500).