Almost half of all people living in Newham were born outside the UK - one of the highest proportions in England and Wales, figures show.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates 48 per cent of the 354,000 population last year were born overseas, which is down two per cent from a decade earlier.

The figures, based on the Annual Population Survey, count people living at private addresses and students in halls of residences whose parents are based in the UK, but exclude people living in communal buildings such as hostels or hotels.

Of the 168,000 people living in Newham last year who were born outside the UK, 40 per cent were from south Asia.

Six per cent were born in the European Union, and another six per cent in other European countries.

Across England and Wales, the population born inside the EU has stabilised over the past 10 years, while the share born outside the EU has increased gradually.

Deputy director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, Rob McNeil, said uncertainties surrounding the UK's withdrawal from the trading bloc have made the country a less attractive destination for EU citizens.

He described a "lack of clarity" about their status as residents and workers after Brexit, with the falling value of the pound meaning that their potential earnings in the UK are worth less than in recent years.

Despite this general trend, Ann Blake of the Centre for International Migration at the ONS said population patterns differed at a local level.

The areas with the highest proportions of non-UK born residents were in London.

People born outside of the UK made up about half of the population in Brent, Westminster, and Kensington and Chelsea.

The ONS estimates that 9.3 million people born overseas lived in the UK last year, which amounts to 14 per cent of the population.

There was a higher proportion of migrants among people of working age: 18 per cent.

Between 2008 and 2018, the greatest increase in the share of people born outside the UK was in South Bucks and Surrey Heath, rising by 15 per cent in both areas.

The sharpest fall was in Richmondshire, where it dropped seven per cent.