Martin Robinson, Daily Mail, January 26, 2015

The number of foreign-born people living in London will outnumber native Britons by 2031, it was revealed today.

The immigrant population of the capital will reach at least five million in 16 years–having more than doubled from one million in 1971 to three million in 2011, when the last census was carried out.

New research has found the rise of non-British born Londoners will take the city’s total population to more than 10 million in 2031 and 11 million in 2041–compared with the 8.6 million living there today.

But while the city’s immigrant population will continue to rise sharply in the coming decades, the number of British-born people will continue to slowly decline.

In 1971 this figure was at more than six million but this is likely to sink below five million in the coming decades.

Immigration groups have said that the situation will be ‘totally unacceptable’ to many voters while political parties say it will but put even more pressure on public services.

Vice chairman of MigrationWatch UK Alp Mehmet said: ‘The public understand the enormous effect that the present rate of immigration is having on many of our cities and especially on London.

‘On current trends, the UK-born will be in a minority in their own capital within 20 years, despite strong public opposition to mass immigration.

‘It is time that the political class woke up to the implications for the future of our society before they find their credibility in shreds.’

Research by The Times has revealed the likely change in London’s population by 2031 and used previous studies.

According to the national census from 2011 the capital’s population was 8.2 million, up from 7.5 million in 1971.

Of the three million foreign-born residents 40 per cent were from Europe, 30 per cent from the Middle East and Asia, 20 per cent from Africa and 10 per cent from America or the Caribbean.

Since 1951 the number of Londoners from Africa has rocketed from 90,000 to 620,000, with people from Nigeria making up 100,000 of those.

In the same period those originally from Asia and the Middle East went from 180,000 to 970,000–with people originally from India making up 155,000 of those.

The 2011 census also revealed other social changes in London, including that white British people became a minority in London for the first time.

Just 3.7 million Londoners described their ethnicity as ‘White British’ in 2011–down from 4.3 million in 2001, and making up 44.9 per cent of the city’s population.

Five London boroughs saw the proportion of white Britons fall by more than a quarter. The largest decline was in Newham, East London, where the decrease was 37.5 per cent.

In Barking and Dagenham, on the East London/Essex border, 80 per cent of residents were white British in 2001 but by 2011 the proportion was 49 per cent.