# Born outside the UK

The share of residents born outside the UK, including in Ireland.

## Facts

- Published by: Office for National Statistics
National Records of Scotland
Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
- Level of detail: Output area
- Updates: Every 10 years
- History: Since 2021
- Licence: Open Government Licence 3.0
- Levels: Nation, Region, Council, Constituency, Postcode area, Postcode district, Town, Ward, Middle area, Neighbourhood, Output area

## Periods

| Level | First | Latest | Periods |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Nation | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Region | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Council | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Constituency | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Postcode area | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Postcode district | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Town | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Ward | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Middle area | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Neighbourhood | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Output area | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |

## Coverage

| Nation | Areas | With a figure |
| --- | --- | --- |
| England | 178605 | 178605 |
| Wales | 10275 | 10275 |
| Scotland | 46363 | 46363 |

## Caveats

- Country of birth is not the same as nationality, citizenship or ethnic group. People born abroad to British parents are counted as born outside the UK.
- Percentages worked out by Open Index from the published counts.
- England, Wales and Northern Ireland held their census on 21 March 2021. Scotland's was a year later, on 20 March 2022, so its figures describe a day a year on.
- Each census office makes small random changes to counts to protect privacy, so the smallest areas can be a few people out, and small areas do not add up exactly to larger ones.
- Wards and constituencies are worked out by Open Index by adding up the census areas that best fit them, so they are close but not exact. Councils whose boundaries changed after the census are added up from output areas.
- Scotland's census publishes output areas and Data Zones in bulk, so Open Index adds up Data Zones for Intermediate Zones, councils and Scotland.
- Northern Ireland has no 2021 output areas. Its smallest census areas are Data Zones, so the map holds at that level there.

## Example: Hackney

39.7% of residents in Hackney were born outside the UK.
In London the figure is 40.6%.

https://openindex.co.uk/hackney

## Sources

### Census 2021, England and Wales

- Publisher: Office for National Statistics
- Licence: [Open Government Licence 3.0](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/)
- Edition: Census 2021 topic summaries (Nomis bulk)
- Published: 19 January 2023
- Fetched: 15 October 2026
- Updates: one-off
- Credit: Source: Office for National Statistics, Census 2021, licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0.
- Publisher's page: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/sources/census_2021_bulk

### Scotland's Census 2022

- Publisher: National Records of Scotland
- Licence: [Open Government Licence 3.0](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/)
- Edition: Scotland's Census 2022 bulk tables, July 2026
- Published: 21 July 2026
- Fetched: 15 October 2026
- Updates: one-off
- Credit: Source: National Records of Scotland, Scotland's Census 2022. Crown copyright. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Publisher's page: https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/documents/2022-output-area-data/

### Census 2021, Northern Ireland

- Publisher: Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
- Licence: [Open Government Licence 3.0](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/)
- Edition: Census 2021 Flexible Table Builder extract, October 2026
- Fetched: 15 October 2026
- Updates: one-off
- Credit: Source: NISRA, Census 2021. Website: www.nisra.gov.uk. Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Publisher's page: https://build.nisra.gov.uk/en/

## Use it

- [The map](https://openindex.co.uk/map/born-outside-uk)
- [Ranking](https://openindex.co.uk/rankings/born-outside-uk/uk)
- Download (Output area): https://data.openindex.co.uk/s/2026.10.8/downloads/layers/born-outside-uk/output_area.csv
- API: https://openindex.co.uk/v1/layers/born-outside-uk

## How to cite

Source: Open Index, openindex.co.uk. Link to this page, https://openindex.co.uk/sources/born-outside-uk.

Open Index's own text and the figures it works out are licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Source data keeps its publishers' licences, named with each figure. Give each figure's period and source with it.

- Source: Office for National Statistics, Census 2021, licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0.
- Source: National Records of Scotland, Scotland's Census 2022. Crown copyright. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Source: NISRA, Census 2021. Website: www.nisra.gov.uk. Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Snapshot 2026.10.8, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23508850. The HTML page: https://openindex.co.uk/sources/born-outside-uk