MORE EU citizens are registering for national insurance numbers in Ceredigion than before the Brexit vote, bucking the national trend.

Figures from the Department for Work and Pensions show that across the majority of the UK far fewer Europeans have applied for NI numbers since the EU referendum in June 2016.

New residents require an NI number to work and claim benefits.

However in Ceredigion the number of immigrants from the EU registering for NI numbers has increased.

In the year before June 2016, the month of the referendum, 318 EU citizens registered for NI numbers.

Last year 473 Europeans registered, 155 more than before the Brexit vote.

The data divides the European workers into three groups.

It identifies people from the EU15, which are countries that joined the bloc before 2004, like France, Spain and Germany.

The EU8 countries joined in the 2004 enlargement, and include nations such as Poland and the Czech Republic.

The EU2, Romania and Bulgaria, joined in 2007, but could not move to the UK to work until 2014.

It shows that the biggest rise in new workers registering was by those from the EU8 countries.

In the 12 months up to March, 104 more EU8 citizens signed up for NI numbers than before the Brexit vote.

Of residents from the EU15, six fewer registered.

And the number of immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria registering for NI numbers rose by 62 or 66 per cent.

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