The British statistics agency ONS (Office for National Statistics) has considerably underestimated the immigration surplus from the EU in recent years. The authority said yesterday. The trend of decline in the number of immigrants from the EU since the Brexit vote is not questioned, said an ONS spokesman on request of the dpa.
For example, from April 2015 to April 2016, the immigration surplus from EU countries (difference between immigrants and emigrants) was reported as 16 per cent too low. In fact, instead of 178,000, 207,000 additional people from the EU would have settled in Britain during this period. The number of immigrants from non-EU countries, however, had been overestimated.
The correction came just one day before the publication of the latest quarterly ONS immigration statistics. The numbers are to be treated with caution, said the authority. The error was the result of a comparison with other sources. The ONS estimates are collected through surveys at airports. However, this method is prone to errors, it said.
