London:
Britain will be the most ethnically diverse Western nation after 2050, a study today said, citing a massive influx of immigrants.
A massive influx of immigrants has given Britain the fastest-rising percentage of ethnic minority and foreign-born populations, it said.
The report's author says foreigners and non-whites living here will double by 2040 to make up a third of the UK.
He has even controversially claimed white Brits will be a minority by 2066, the Sun tabloid reported.
Prof David Coleman said: "On current trends European populations will become more ethnically diverse, with the possibility that today's majority ethnic groups will no longer comprise a numerical majority."
By 2040, he said, 37 per cent who live here won't class themselves as white or British.
That will put us level with the world's traditional melting pot, the US, which we will then overtake.
Coleman, professor of demography at Oxford, made his findings from a study of international population projections, carried out for the respected academic outfit Migration Observatory.
In the study, minorities are classed as people who also describe themselves in censuses as Irish or another nationality, as well as by their skin colour.
Prof Coleman said migration has become the "primary driver of demographic change".
Declining birth rates among white Brits is another factor.
In England and Wales, 25 per cent of births are from foreign-born mothers, the report said. A similar trend is seen in France and Germany.
The calculations are based on the current net rates of immigration, which have been running at more than 200,000 a year.
But Prof Coleman said clampdowns on the influx, which the Government is attempting, could "dramatically change" the trend.
Immigration campaigners last night raised concerns about newcomers' ability to integrate into society, and their impact on the health and education systems.
The UK's population is estimated to hit 77 million by 2051.