BURY has seen a 54 per cent increase in the population of foreign-born residents over a 10-year period.

Oxford University’s Migration Observ-atory analysed census data and found that there were 16,115 non UK-born residents at the 2011 census.

This figure had increased from 10,467 non-UK residents living in the borough at the time of the last census, in 2001.

Of the foreign-born residents living in Bury, statistics showed that 22 per cent were of Pakistani origin, 11 per cent were Irish, 10 per cent were Polish, four per cent were Indian and three per cent were German.

Their study of the North West’s migrant population is the first of its kind, and it found that Greater Manch-ester is home to 56 per cent of the foreign-born residents of the North West.

Between 2001 and 2011, the non-UK born population increased in each local authority in the North West, to varying degrees.

The highest percentage increase was in Salford, with the number of foreign-born residents increasing by 137 per cent, a rise of more than 15,000 people.

In Manchester, the number of foreign-born residents living there rose by 118 per cent, a rise of just over 69,000 people.

Overall, of the total popu- lation of the North West — which stood at a little more than seven million in 2011 — eight per cent of those residents were born outside the UK.

Dr Carlos Vargas-Silva, a senior resea-rcher who led the project, said: “The North West has seen a lot of change over the past decade, with its migrant population increasing by more than two-thirds, and more than doubling in several major cities.

“The North West has a smaller share of migrants in its population than the UK average, but its foreign-born population is unevenly distributed, with more than half of the region’s foreign-born people living in Greater Manchester.

“A quarter of people living in the city of Manchester were born abroad, while in areas such as Knowsley, that number falls to fewer than three people in every 100.”