ONE in four babies born in the UK has a foreign mother or father, Government figures revealed yesterday.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) data for the year to July 2006 showed the proportion of babies born to a foreign parent has risen to 25 per cent, compared with 20 per cent in 2001.

In total, the UK saw an increase in births to 734,000 in the year, compared with 663,000 four years earlier.

An ONS spokesman said: "We have figures for the contribution of mothers and fathers born abroad, and that has risen.

"That reflects the cumulative effect of immigration over the past 40 years."

Of the overall birth rate increase, he added: "All the evidence is that the figures will continue."

The figures also showed the number of people migrating from the UK has reached record levels.

Long-term migration from the country reached 385,000 in the year to July 2006, the highest figure since current counting methods were introduced in 1991.

The number of long-term migrants who arrived in the UK in the same period was 574,000, slightly down on the previous year.

David Nicholson-Lord, Optimum Population Trust research associate, said: "Out-migration has been climbing for several years and survey evidence suggests it is driven by a perceived decline in UK quality of life, with congestion, queues, overcrowding and general lack of space a key element in people's decisions to move.

"The new figures indicate that more and more people are opting for a more spacious and less fraught existence overseas, in countries where there are fewer crowds and more room to breathe."

He added: "England is now the world's fourth most densely populated country and the overall population increase reported today, equivalent to a city larger than Leicester, shows that this is going to get worse.

"Over the next six decades, the UK population is forecast to rise by another ten million."

Overall, the population of the country rose 0.6 per cent in the year to 60,587,000.