The city was in competition with Bristol for the jobs

The switch out of London and Hampshire is part of plans to relocate 27,000 Whitehall posts.

The idea was first outlined in a UK government review in March.

It is not yet clear how many of the jobs for the Newport office of the ONS, based near Tredegar Park, will be available to local people.

The move is expected to take place over a number of years.

It will also affect staff currently working at the Titchfield office in Hampshire.

Chancellor Gordon Brown had already announced in July that the ONS jobs would move either to south Wales or Bristol.

We have fought off pretty strong competition to achieve this Chris Freegard, Newport Council

As part of the restructuring of the civil service, he plans to shed 104,000 civil service jobs which he claims will free up money to spend on education, health, defence, housing and overseas aid.

Chris Freegard, the managing director at Newport County Council, said: "It's a tremendous achievement, not just for Newport but south Wales.

"We have fought off pretty strong competition to achieve this."

He attributed the move to two factors.

"Firstly, Newport was such a tremendous location for new jobs to be created, and secondly, their real ability to grow the existing and major presence which the ONS already has," he told BBC Radio Wales.

'Well-paid jobs'

"Clearly, not everybody is going to want to make the trip from London and the south east to Wales and there are going to be some job opportunities

"The jobs that are going to be coming to Newport are real high quality jobs. They're highly skilled, well-paid, they're exactly the sort of jobs the Welsh economy needs."

Jeff Evans, of the PCS civil service union, agreed it was good news for Newport but argued the overall future of the civil service in Wales was not so positive.

The Chancellor's announcement in July was an absolute disaster for Wales Jeff Evans, PCS

"We have a good workforce here [at ONS] and it will consolidate their future, but these are not new jobs of course.

"These are relocated jobs and 600 people in London and Titchfield will be losing their jobs and they don't deserve that," he said.

"We're losing 104,000 civil service jobs across the UK which we predict when you align it to Wales will result in 6,000 jobs alone in Wales to go.

"The chancellor's announcement in July was an absolute disaster for Wales, because there are more civil servants employed in Wales than in almost any other part of the country.

"It will impact proportionately more in Wales than any other region of the UK."

Assembly Economic Development Minister Andrew Davies praised the work of the assembly government and "Team Wales" in securing the relocation to Newport rather than Bristol.

He told BBC Wales they had used a "highly skilled workforce, good quality of life and an excellent education system" as selling points.

Mr Davies added: "Obviously, the Office of National Statistics have already got a location in Newport and they liked the service they had there already."