The British population rose by 500 people a day in 2005 as the number of new immigrants dwarfed the total leaving the country, official figures showed on Thursday. The Office for National Statistics said the net migration total for last year was 185,000, down from 223,000 in 2004.
The big intake of new entrants to the economy -1,500 a day on a gross basis - has helped keep a lid on wage growth despite relatively low unemployment. But policymakers have been worried that it is hard to quantify how quickly the workforce is growing and Bank of England Governor Mervyn King described estimating this as one of the biggest problems facing the central bank right now.
"We do very much need more accurate estimates of the total size of the UK population," King told a parliamentary committee this week.
Economists said the number of people joining the workforce was almost certainly bigger than the ONS figures suggest as the data does not take people visiting and working for just a few months.
"Either way, there is little doubt that in the near-term, strong net migration is likely to keep the workforce growing at unusually rapid rates," said Vicky Redwood of Capital Economics. "We expect this to prompt unemployment to rise further and to play a key role in ensuring that pay growth fails to pick up significantly during the January pay round."
The ONS said 12 percent, or 49,000, of migrants to Britain came from Poland - the biggest proportion from any single country - and more than three times that in 2004. India came a close second, accounting for 11 percent.
Britain announced last week it would restict the influx of migrant workers from Bulgaria and Romania after they join the European Union in January in a shift from the open-door policy adopted toward other eastern Europeans.
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