Romanians become 2nd largest group of foreign arrivals in Britain

LONDON - Romanians are now the second most-common group of non-British nationals in Britain after a surge in arrivals in recent years, local media reports said Friday.

Figures showed that the group overtook Irish and Indian nationals for the first time last year, according to the reports.

The number of Romanian nationals living in Britain in 2017 was estimated to be 411,000, a jump of 25 percent on the previous year, and the largest increase for any country.

Some 350,000 Irish nationals lived in Britain in 2017, while there were 346,000 Indians.

Polish remains the most common non-British nationality, with an estimated one million in Britain.

The total number of non-British nationals living in the UK last year was 6.2 million. This was four percent higher than in 2016, although the rate of growth slowed compared with the two preceding years.

About 3.8 million of the total were European Union nationals.