Official figures indicate that net migration to the UK – the difference between the number of arrivals and departures – has decreased to levels approaching those seen prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
How does this trend align with other significant migration indicators, including overall immigration figures, small boat arrivals, and visa issuances? Continue reading for a comprehensive overview of the latest key statistics and answers to frequently asked questions on various related topics.
Produced by: Rob England, Libby Rogers, Jess Carr, John Walton, Becky Dale, Allison Shultes, Chris Kay, Steven Connor and Scott Jarvis.
Graphics by: Jez Frazer, Zoe Bartholomew and Joy Roxas
*The net migration figure may not precisely equal the difference between total immigration and emigration due to rounding by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Data from government or other official sources referenced in this report are subject to retrospective revisions between publications. This page reflects the data as presented in the most recent release.
ONS data on immigration and emigration are updated bi-annually.
Home Office data on small boat arrivals are updated daily. Asylum, returns, and visa statistics from the Home Office are updated quarterly.
The Ministry of Justice updates the number of individuals appealing rejected asylum claims quarterly, on a different schedule than other government asylum statistics.
Immigration, Emigration, and Net Migration
Net migration figures are sourced from the ONS and adhere to the internationally recognized definition of a long-term migrant: “an individual who relocates to a country other than their usual residence for a period of at least one year.”
Visas for Legal Migration
Visa entry data includes only visas granted and excludes individuals entering the UK on visitor or transit visas (i.e., those whose final destination is not the UK).
Visa statistics indicate when permission to enter the UK was granted, not the date of arrival.
Individuals granted multiple visas within the reporting year are counted separately for each visa.
The work category encompasses new individuals linked to visas and permits, as well as extensions of existing permissions. This includes sub-categories such as seasonal, health and care, domestic, and youth mobility visas.
Study visas include all individuals sponsored by approved UK education providers and those holding short-term study visas.
Family visas enable individuals to enter or remain in the UK to live with close family members already residing there, including spouses, partners, children, parents, or relatives requiring care.
The “Other” category includes visas outside of work, family, and study categories, such as humanitarian routes like the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme and the British National Overseas route.
This category also encompasses family permits for individuals from countries within the European Union or European Economic Area.
Asylum Applications and Hotels
The Home Office publishes figures for asylum seekers accommodated in hotels under the “contingency accommodation – hotel” category.
The total number of individuals in all other forms of accommodation includes those in non-hotel contingency accommodation, as well as initial, dispersal, and “other” accommodation.
A scale is used to assess a local authority’s proximity to the average population share for an area in the UK. This compares the share in that area to the share across all areas in the UK that utilize that form of accommodation.
Data on the backlog of individuals awaiting an initial decision on their asylum application includes both applicants and dependents.
The number of open appeals against rejected asylum applications refers to individual applicants.
Small Boat Crossings and Other Illegal Arrivals
Data on small boat crossings and the average number of individuals per boat are derived from the UK Home Office’s daily timeseries.
Entering the UK without authorization is an offense under immigration law; however, asylum seekers generally are not prosecuted for doing so if they claim asylum upon arrival. In some instances, individuals have been prosecuted for unauthorized entry alongside other offenses, such as human smuggling or re-entry after deportation.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) collects data on individuals who died or went missing while crossing from mainland Europe to the UK.
These reports are based on information from French and UK officials (e.g., police, coast guard) or media sources, and are considered an undercount by the IOM due to the absence of official statistics.
The figures can include individuals who died in the Channel during a crossing, as well as those who died at any point while en route to a crossing point.
Modern slavery data encompasses only final decisions. Modern slavery includes any form of human trafficking, slavery, servitude, or forced labor.
Figures for other entries without permission represent the sum of all irregular arrivals not by small boat, including inadequately documented air arrivals, recorded detections at UK ports, and other recorded detections within the UK.
Returns and Deportations from the UK
Figures on individuals who arrive in the UK but are denied entry and subsequently depart are not included in the number of returns presented on this page.
Individuals returned after being convicted of a criminal offense include non-British citizens convicted of any criminal offense in the UK, or convicted abroad of a serious criminal offense.
Returns involving the government encompass the Home Office categories of enforced returns (also known as deportations), as well as assisted and controlled voluntary returns.
Independent returns are referred to by the government as other verified returns.
UK Migration Compared with Other Countries
Sea arrival figures are taken from the UNHCR European sea arrivals dashboard and combined with UK Home Office figures for small boat arrivals.
Asylum application, immigration, and emigration figures for European countries reflect the latest available data from Eurostat for the following countries:
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Norway, Switzerland and Croatia.
Population figures for the UK are from ONS, National Records of Scotland and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency 2024 mid-year estimates, and for Europe from Eurostat data as of 1 January 2024.
To account for smaller populations and facilitate comparison with the UK, European countries with a population of less than one million have been excluded when calculating net migration and asylum application figures.
Additionally, when calculating net migration, only countries which include asylum seekers or refugees in their immigration figures are included, these are:
Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland.
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