Migration
Net migration is a balance between two much larger flows. This page shows both, over time, and explains why the ONS and Home Office figures will never match.
Long-term international migration counts moves intended to last 12 months or more. It does not count visitors, short courses, or seasonal work under a year. In the year ending June 2026 the Home Office granted 2,185,158 visitor visas, and not one of them appears in the figures on this page.
Net migration over time
Net migration is immigration minus emigration. It is not a count of arrivals, and nobody is "a net migrant". See the full check on net migration read as a count of arrivals.
UK net migration, 2012 to 2025
Net migration rose sharply from 2021 and reached 891,000 in 2022, the highest point on this calendar-year series. It has fallen in each of the three years since, to 171,000.
ONS advises that estimates before and after June 2021 should be compared with caution, because the methods used to produce them differ. The break is marked on the chart. What changed is the source of the estimate: before it, migration was estimated from the International Passenger Survey, a sample survey of travellers at ports and airports; after it, from administrative data already held by government, chiefly Home Office visa and border records and, for British and Irish nationals, other administrative sources. ONS calls the second its "new approach", and it is why estimates either side are not a like-for-like series rather than simply revised. Every point comes from a single ONS release, and figures from different releases must not be mixed. The 2022 estimate has moved across revisions, from 606,000 when first published in May 2023 to 891,000 in the current series. The highest twelve-month net migration estimate ONS publishes is 944,000, in the year ending March 2023, a window a calendar-year series cannot show.
Show the figures behind this chart: UK net migration, 2012 to 2025
Figures either side of the methodology change marked on the chart are not directly comparable.
| Year | Net migration |
|---|---|
| 2012 | 195,000 |
| 2013 | 244,000 |
| 2014 | 284,000 |
| 2015 | 303,000 |
| 2016 | 249,000 |
| 2017 | 208,000 |
| 2018 | 276,000 |
| 2019 | 184,000 |
| 2020 | 93,000 |
| 2021 | 467,000 |
| 2022 | 891,000 |
| 2023 | 848,000 |
| 2024 | 331,000 |
| 2025 | 171,000 |
Source: ONS, Long-term international immigration, emigration and net migration flows, provisional (May 2026 publication spreadsheet, Table 1). The vertical axis starts at zero.
How to cite this: UK net migration, 2012 to 2025
- ONS, Long-term international immigration, emigration and net migration flows, provisional (May 2026 publication spreadsheet, Table 1). Published . https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/datasets/longterminternationalimmigrationemigrationandnetmigrationflowsprovisional/yearendingdecember2025/may2026publicationspreadsheet.xlsx (spreadsheet download). Checked by us on .
Via UK Migration Explorer, https://ukmigrationexplorer.org/migration/#net-migration-over-time.
The two flows behind that number
The same fall can come from fewer people arriving, more people leaving, or both. The only way to see which is to look at the flows separately.
Long-term immigration and emigration, 2012 to 2025
Immigration was highest in 2023 on this calendar-year series, at 1,441,000, and has fallen since. Emigration fell for two years to 2021, then rose in each of the three years after it, to 680,000 in 2024, easing to 642,000 in 2025.
Between 2023 and 2024, net migration fell from 848,000 to 331,000 while immigration fell from 1,441,000 to 1,012,000. Emigration went the other way, from 593,000 to 680,000: more people leaving, not only fewer arriving. These are calendar years. The highest twelve-month immigration estimate ONS publishes is 1,469,000, in the year ending March 2023, a window a calendar-year series cannot show.
Show the figures behind this chart: Long-term immigration and emigration, 2012 to 2025
Figures either side of the methodology change marked on the chart are not directly comparable.
| Year | Immigration | Emigration |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 643,000 | 448,000 |
| 2013 | 713,000 | 469,000 |
| 2014 | 778,000 | 494,000 |
| 2015 | 797,000 | 494,000 |
| 2016 | 772,000 | 523,000 |
| 2017 | 752,000 | 544,000 |
| 2018 | 825,000 | 549,000 |
| 2019 | 788,000 | 605,000 |
| 2020 | 662,000 | 569,000 |
| 2021 | 947,000 | 480,000 |
| 2022 | 1,398,000 | 508,000 |
| 2023 | 1,441,000 | 593,000 |
| 2024 | 1,012,000 | 680,000 |
| 2025 | 813,000 | 642,000 |
Source: ONS, Long-term international immigration, emigration and net migration flows, provisional (May 2026 publication spreadsheet, Table 1). The vertical axis starts at zero.
How to cite this: Long-term immigration and emigration, 2012 to 2025
- ONS, Long-term international immigration, emigration and net migration flows, provisional (May 2026 publication spreadsheet, Table 1). Published . https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/datasets/longterminternationalimmigrationemigrationandnetmigrationflowsprovisional/yearendingdecember2025/may2026publicationspreadsheet.xlsx (spreadsheet download). Checked by us on .
Via UK Migration Explorer, https://ukmigrationexplorer.org/migration/#flows-over-time.
Why people came
ONS publishes a breakdown by reason for non-EU+ arrivals only, which were 627,000 of the 813,000 total. Non-EU+ is a nationality grouping, not a route. There is no headline breakdown of net migration by reason: subtracting this year's departures, classified by the reason they originally came, from this year's arrivals would set two different cohorts against each other.
Reason for long-term immigration, non-EU+ arrivals, year ending December 2025
Study was the largest single reason at 294,000, followed by work at 146,000 and asylum at 88,000.
These are reasons for coming as ONS classifies them, not routes of arrival, and the three shown are not all of them. Humanitarian is separate, about 6% of non-EU+ arrivals, and family about 7%; neither is inside the asylum bar. Work-related immigration fell by 47% from 272,000 the previous year, and ONS identifies it as the largest single contributor to the fall in net migration.
Show the figures behind this chart: Reason for long-term immigration, non-EU+ arrivals, year ending December 2025
| Category | people | What it counts |
|---|---|---|
| Study | 294,000 | Main applicants 277,000 plus 17,000 dependants |
| Work | 146,000 | Main applicants 71,000 plus 74,000 dependants. ONS rounds each figure independently, so the split does not sum exactly to the total |
| Asylum | 88,000 | Asylum applicants only. Includes claims made after arriving by a regular route |
Source: ONS, long-term international migration, provisional: year ending December 2025. The axis starts at zero.
How to cite this: Reason for long-term immigration, non-EU+ arrivals, year ending December 2025
- ONS, Long-term international migration, provisional: year ending December 2025. Cited for Study-related immigration (non-EU+ arrivals). Work-related immigration (non-EU+ arrivals). Asylum-related immigration (non-EU+ arrivals). Published . https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/longterminternationalmigrationprovisional/yearendingdecember2025. Checked by us on .
Via UK Migration Explorer, https://ukmigrationexplorer.org/migration/#reason-for-migration.
Why the ONS and Home Office figures never match
Two different organisations count two different things, and readers regularly set one against the other as though the gap were a discrepancy. It is not.
| ONS migration estimates | Home Office visa statistics | |
|---|---|---|
| Counts | People moving for 12 months or more | Visas granted |
| Includes British citizens | Yes, arriving and leaving | No |
| A grant that is never used | Not counted, because no move happened | Counted |
| Someone already in the UK extending | Not counted, because no move happened | Counted |
| Latest period | Year ending December 2025 | Year ending June 2026 |
| Status | Official statistics in development, provisional | Accredited official statistics |
The visa total will always be higher, and it is supposed to be. Neither figure is wrong; they answer different questions.
These estimates get revised
Net migration for the year ending December 2024 was first published at 431,000, then at about 345,000, and now stands at 331,000. The estimate changed because ONS brought in new data and methods, not because the 2024 period itself changed.
That is the statistics system working rather than failing, but it means any single figure quoted from a past release may already be superseded. Each figure on this site carries the date its source was published for exactly that reason.
Claims that rest on these figures
Each of these checks uses at least one figure from this page. They are the same figures, read against a sentence somebody is circulating.
- Net migration is the number of people who entered the UK.
- Most immigration is asylum seekers.
- Falling net migration means the asylum system is shrinking.
- Visa grants equal arrivals.
Every figure on this page
Show each figure's confidence grade and the date it was checked
Each figure on this page carries the period it covers, the date this site last checked it against its source, and this site's own confidence grade. The grade is our judgement about how far the figure can be relied on, not the publisher's.
- Asylum-related immigration (non-EU+ arrivals)
- provisional year ending December 2025 Checked by us on
- Net migration (long-term international migration)
- provisional year ending December 2025 Checked by us on
- Net migration (previous year, revised, for trend)
- provisional year ending December 2024 (updated estimate) Checked by us on
- Net migration, highest twelve-month estimate on the current ONS basis
- provisional year ending March 2023 Checked by us on
- Study-related immigration (non-EU+ arrivals)
- provisional year ending December 2025 Checked by us on
- Study-related immigration, main applicants (non-EU+ arrivals)
- provisional year ending December 2025 Checked by us on
- Study-related immigration, dependants (non-EU+ arrivals)
- provisional year ending December 2025 Checked by us on
- Total long-term emigration (outflow)
- provisional year ending December 2025 Checked by us on
- Total long-term immigration (inflow)
- provisional year ending December 2025 Checked by us on
- Long-term immigration, highest twelve-month estimate on the current ONS basis
- provisional year ending March 2023 Checked by us on
- Long-term immigration of non-EU+ nationals
- provisional year ending December 2025 Checked by us on
- Work-related immigration (non-EU+ arrivals)
- provisional year ending December 2025 Checked by us on
- Work-related immigration, main applicants (non-EU+ arrivals)
- provisional year ending December 2025 Checked by us on
- Work-related immigration, dependants (non-EU+ arrivals)
- provisional year ending December 2025 Checked by us on
- Work-related immigration, previous year (non-EU+ arrivals)
- provisional year ending December 2024 Checked by us on
- Visitor visas granted
- official year ending June 2026 Checked by us on
How every figure here is sourced and recorded.
This page was last reviewed on . Its figures are not a live count; every one was checked against its source on or after .