Councils coping with higher population figures than was thought Officials have carried out a review of population figures in the light of the 2011 census, to give a truer picture of how many live in the country and to gauge the impact of a decade of mass immigration. The census showed there were almost 500,000 more people living in England and Wales than was previously thought and prompted the ONS to revise its annual "mid year population estimates" for all 348 council areas across the country. In 216 areas (62 per cent of councils), the population was found to be higher than previously thought. In 132 area (38 per cent), the population was found to be lower than thought. In 97 cases, the earlier population estimates were more than 5,000 out. The disclosure will add weight to persistent complaints from councils that their schools and local services are underfunded due to incorrect population data, which has not taken full account of recent immigration. The biggest discrepancy uncovered was in Newham, east London, where the population was found to be more than 68,000 times higher than previously thought, at 310,500. Other areas where large differences in the figures were found are the London boroughs of Brent (51,000 more people than previously thought), Haringey (30,000) and Waltham Forest (29,000). In Birmingham, the previous population estimate was more than 27,000 too low. Sir Robin Wales, the Mayor of Newham Sir Robin Wales: "We have long been concerned about an undercount by ONS of our population and associated funding gap. This is at a time when we are facing deep cuts in our grant from Government and is unacceptable.