Fact#1 Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and NorthernIreland. Southern Ireland (Now the Republic of Ireland, previously the Irish Free State) separated from Northern Ireland in the 1922 partition. Ireland as a whole waspart of the UK until partition

Facts#2 The UK has the fifth-largest immigrant population in the world, at 8.5 million. Between 1990 and 2015, the UK’s immigrant population more than doubled, from 3.7 million. As of 2015, about 13% of the UK’s resident population was foreign-born, comparable to the roughly 14% foreign-born share in the United States

Facts#3 As of 2015, the UK’s immigrant population has one of the most diverse groups of origin countries in the world, tying Denmark for the highest diversity score, which measures the distribution of immigrants from different source countries. The top three origin countries of immigrants living in the UK are India (780,000), Poland (700,000) and Pakistan (540,000).

Facts#4 About a third of the UK’s immigrants (2.9 million, or 34%) were born in other EU countries. By contrast, Luxembourg, at 89%, has the highest share of its immigrant population that is from other EU countries. The UK’s neighbor Ireland also has a higher share (74%) of EU immigrants, as does Germany (44%), the EU country with the highest number of immigrants. Brexit debates have mostly focused on EU immigrants living in the UK.

Facts#5 In 2015, about 4.9 million people born in the UK lived in other countries, the 10th-largest emigrant population in the world. Overall, about 8% of those born in the UK live outside its borders. By contrast, only about 1% of those born in the U.S. live outside of the United States. Among the 10 countries with the highest number of emigrants, the UK is the only Western European country to appear on the list. Other top origin countries of emigrants include India (15.6 million), Mexico (12.3 million) and Russia (10.6 million).