Net migration to the UK is at an all-time high, reaching 330,000 in the year to March, the Office for National Statistics has said.
The figure – the difference between the number entering the country and those leaving – is more than three times higher than the government’s target.
In 2014, 13% of people in the UK had been born abroad, taking the foreign-born population to 8.3m.
Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said it was “deeply disappointing”.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage said: “These figures reflect ‘Borderless Britain’ and total impotence of the British government.”
UK migration figures
330,000
Net migration to UK, in year ending March 2015
28%
Increase since March 2014
- 10,000 higher than previous peak in 2005
- 61% of EU immigrants had definite job to go to
- 9,000 fewer people have emigrated since 2014
It is the fifth consecutive quarterly rise in the net migration figure – with increases in arrivals from both inside and outside the EU.
Net migration of EU citizens was 183,000, up 53,000 from the year end to March 2014.
The number of those arriving from countries outside the EU was still larger, with net migration measured at 196,000, up 39,000 on a year earlier.
Among the other ONS findings based on the latest figures were:
- India is the most common non-UK country of birth in the UK population – 793,000 UK residents were born in India
- Polish is the most common non-British nationality, with 853,000 residents (including those born in the UK) describing their nationality as Polish
- There were 25,771 asylum applications in the year to June 2015, an increase of 10% compared with the previous 12 months. A total of 11,600 people were granted asylum or an alternative form of protection.
In 2011, Prime Minister David Cameron said in a speech that he was giving a “no ifs, no buts” promise that he would bring immigration numbers down to “levels our country can manage”
After this latest set of figures, the government insisted it was acting to control immigration but said the EU needed to do more to help ease the current migrant crisis across Europe.
Mr Brokenshire said: “These stark figures are deeply disappointing.
“While these figures underline the challenges we need to meet to reduce net migration, they should also act as a further wake-up call for the EU.
“Current flows of people across Europe are on a scale we haven’t seen since the end of World War Two. This is not sustainable and risks the future economic development of other EU member states.”