LOCAL governement officials have rejected figures that suggest the North is one of the worst-hit areas in Britain for people moving away.

A survey of 15 member countries by the European Union suggested five British regions were among the worst hit by population loss.

North Yorkshire, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear were listed, along with Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, Lincolnshire and Shropshire and Staffordshire.

"Economic push and pull factors, which often cause young people to move to other regions, are the main cause of the shifts," says the report.

North Yorkshire and Northumberland, Tyne and Wear are also said to be suffering as naturally declining populations are combining with "economically-driven emigration", with figures quoted suggesting that about seven in every thousand people are moving away.

According to the figures, North Yorkshire loses 28 out of every 1,000 population every year, with Northumberland and Tyne and Wear not far behind, at 14 per thousand.

However, Simon Pitts, a spokesman for North Yorkshire County Council, said he was baffled by the figures - as were others he had spoken to from other local authorities.

"Our figures, which go back to the middle of last year, show an increase in population in North Yorkshire," he said.

Mr Pitts said the authority was concerned that the figures could give the wrong impression of the region, particularly to businesses looking for new locations.

"I could speculate that the figures released by the EU refer only to international migration, but that doesn't appear to be clear in the report," he said.

"The evidence we have suggests North Yorkshire is not suffering from an increase in emigration - if anything, it's the opposite."