Immigration has added nearly 2.5 million people with poor maths to the population, while almost 700,000 numerically talented people have left the country, an academic said yesterday.
While many immigrants are highly numerate, they have been outweighed by those with low-level maths over the past 50 years, research suggests.
Britons who moved abroad ended up earning more but having a poorer life-work balance, according to the data.
John Jerrim, of University College London’s Institute of Education, analysed the qualifications and skills of people leaving Britain between 1964 and 2011, and compared them with immigrants and British-born people who remained.
“Immigration has had its biggest impact upon the bottom end of the numeracy skill distribution; it has led to a significant increase in the supply of