The available information is in the following table.
The national insurance number statistics show the total number of NINOs allocated—not the number of migrants living in the UK. We know that many people come to work for a short period then return—the statistics do not distinguish between transient/short term working and longer-term workers.
Thousand 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 Hackney 5.47 7.65 7.46 8.53 Newham 10.45 14.87 15.67 20.51 Tower Hamlets 7.28 10.46 11.57 13.21 Barking and Dagenham 2.53 3.16 3.08 4.29 Greenwich 3.64 5.69 5.69 6.53 Waltham Forest 7.01 9.9 9.46 12.67 UK total 435.35 663.06 705.84 733.09 Notes: 1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 and displayed in thousands. Some additional disclosure control has been applied. 2. Registration date is derived from the date at which a national insurance number (NINO) is maintained on the National Insurance Recording System. 3. Totals do not include adult UK nationals issued with NINOs. 4. Geographical counts are based on the most recently recorded address of the NINO recipient. Source: 100 per cent. extract from National Insurance Recording System.
Improvements have been made to the allocation of migrants whose residential address is incomplete. Figures reflect the best estimate of an overseas national’s locality at the time of registering for a NINO.
The latest year that full data are available is 2007-08. In the six months April to September 2008, 342,800 NINO registrations were issued to adult overseas nationals, broken down as follows:
Registrations Hackney 4,350 Newham 10,680 Tower Hamlets 6,470 Barking and Dagenham 2,350 Greenwich 3,160 Waltham Forest 6,340