Migration statistics
How is migration measured in the UK, how has migration changed over time, and how does UK migration compare with migration in EU countries?
This page is a short summary of the full PDF report Migration statistics.
How is migration measured?There are two main ways of looking at the scale of international migration:
- Measuring flows across an international border.
- Counting how many people live in a particular country who are not nationals of that country or who were born abroad.
The latest estimates of migration from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest that in the year ending December 2025:
- 813,000 people migrated into the UK and 642,000 emigrated from it, resulting in net migration of 171,000. This represents the balance of long-term migrants moving in and out of the country.
The latest census data suggests that in 2021/22, there were:
- 10.7 million people were living in the UK who were born abroad (16% of the total population).
- Of these, 4.0 million (6% of the population) were born in EU countries, while 6.8 million (10% of the population) were born outside the EU.
A more recent ad hoc estimate by the ONS suggests that, as of June 2024, around 13.1 million people living in the UK were born overseas, including 3.9 million born in the EU and 9.2 million born outside the EU. This was equivalent to around 19% of the UK population.
As of 2024, there were around 1.3 million UK nationals living in EU countries, excluding Ireland.
How has migration to the UK changed over time?The number of people migrating to the UK has been greater than the number emigrating in each year since 1994. Before then, immigration and emigration were roughly equal, with emigration being slightly higher in most years.
Over the last 30 years, both immigration and emigration have increased to historically high levels. Immigration exceeded emigration by more than 100,000 in every year between 1998 and 2019.
Migration trends in 2020 are thought to have been considerably impacted by the covid-19 pandemic, when net migration fell to an estimated 93,000. The pandemic also disrupted the way in which migration statistics are produced, so the data from this period is more uncertain than usual.
In 2021 and 2022, immigration increased sharply, peaking at 1.47 million in the year to March 2023, before falling in 2024 and 2025.
The Migration Advisory Committee, an independent group that advises the government on migration, has attributed the post-pandemic rise in net migration to three main factors:
- an increase in work visas, particularly in health and social care
- an increase in student visas
- the opening of new humanitarian routes, such as the British National (Overseas) visa for Hong Kong residents and the Ukraine schemes
Net migration (the number of people immigrating minus the number of people emigrating) has followed a similar trend, peaking at 944,000 in the year ending March 2023. Levels have since fallen substantially, driven by a decrease in immigration from non-EU foreign nationals, and an increase in emigration among the same group.
The chart below shows estimates of migration to and from the UK since 1964.
Source: ONS, Provisional long-term international migration estimates, year ending March 2020 and earlier editions; Long-term international migration, provisional: year ending December 2025, 21 May 2026
New ways of measuring migrationThe methodology behind the UK’s official migration estimates, which are produced by the ONS, is changing. The ONS aims to improve their accuracy and to do so it is refining a new methodology based on administrative data sources (such as Home Office borders and immigration data and Department for Work and Pensions’ tax and benefits data), whereas previous estimates were based on results from the International Passenger Survey.
The latest estimates use a new methodology, which has been backdated to 2012. Estimates from before and after this date are not fully comparable. Estimates back to June 2021 have recently been revised again to reflect further methodological changes.
The new estimates for 2012 onwards are classed as ‘official statistics in development’ and may be subject to further revision as the methodology for producing them is refined.
Local area dataLocal authority estimates of international migration are published within the ONS’s mid‑year population estimates, as a component of population change (alongside births, deaths, internal migration and other changes). These estimates are based on national long‑term migration statistics, alongside other data sources.
Further readingThe Commons Library briefing Recent updates to UK migration estimates looks at recent methodological changes in further detail.
Official migration estimates are published twice yearly by the ONS: Long-term international migration, provisional