How many migrants come to the UK?

Migration has been one of the most hotly-debated topics in UK politics in recent years, and in the lead up to the 2024 general election both Labour and the Conservative party argued that levels of immigration were too high.

Labour pledged in its election manifesto to “reduce net migration”, and over the last year the government has announced a series of changes which it says will “restore control” over the immigration system.

Migration was also reported as one of the key factors behind the disorder and rioting seen in the summer of 2024 (although as we and others wrote at the time, there were a range of underlying causes).

Figures published in November 2025 estimate that net migration to the UK in the year to June 2025 was 204,000, compared with 649,000 in the year to June 2024—a 69% decrease.

Our updated explainer looks at how migration to the UK is measured, how net migration has changed in recent years, and how it’s expected to change in the coming years.

This explainer is one of a series Full Fact is publishing exploring a range of key political topics. We’ll be updating these articles on a regular basis—this article was last updated on 5 December 2025 and the information in it is correct as of then.

How is migration to the UK measured?

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes estimates of long-term international immigration to, and emigration from, the UK based on administrative data.

Subtracting the number of emigrants from the number of immigrants over a given period produces a figure for “net migration”. Net migration figures are perhaps those most commonly cited when talking about UK immigration policy, though Oxford University’s Migration Observatory says that the UK is “unusual in its choice to use net migration in policy debates as the main measure for discussing migration levels”.

The ONS defines a “long-term international migrant” as someone who has changed their country of usual residence for a period of at least a year (based on the UN’s recommended definition).

Current migration figures are based on a relatively new method of measuring annual migration flows (the number of long-term international migrants over a year) using administrative data. Because this method is still in development, the figures are designated as experimental statistics, or “official statistics in development”, by the UK Statistics Authority, as opposed to “national statistics”. Due to this, and lags in the availability of complete travel data, these migration statistics are often subject to revision, as the ONS explains here.

In November 2025, the ONS announced further changes to the ways in which data for EU+ (the EU, plus Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland) and British nationals is produced. Figures for overall net migration, EU+ and British national migration produced using these methods are available from June 2021, but are not comparable with figures from before that period.

These updates showed very different patterns in net migration between 2021 and 2024 than the estimates produced using the previous methodology, particularly for British nationals, something we’ve explained more about here.

Previous estimates for long-term international migration were based on the International Passenger Survey (IPS), data from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), and Home Office data. This data was published by the ONS from 1991 to 2020. An even earlier set of migration data, based solely on the IPS, dates back to 1964.

Net migration has fallen from record levels…

According to the most recent ONS estimates, around 898,000 long-term immigrants arrived in the UK in the year ending June 2025.

Over the same period, emigration from the UK totalled an estimated 693,000, meaning net migration to the UK was estimated to be 204,000.

This represents an almost 69% fall compared to the same period the previous year, when net migration to the UK was 649,000.

As we’ve explained above these net migration estimates may be revised at a later date. All estimates between June 2021 and December 2024 have recently been revised to account for methodology changes.

Estimated net migration reached a record high of 944,000 in the year ending March 2023. The ONS has previously described a “marked change” in immigration patterns since 2021, saying: “The ending of free movement of those from the European Union coupled with the introduction of a new immigration system in January 2021, easing of restrictions after the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, and external events such as the war in Ukraine have all had an impact.”

Based on ONS data cumulative net migration between June 2021 and June 2025 was an estimated 2.7 million.

However, the ONS says that there has been a “continued fall in net migration” since March 2023 which can “mainly be attributed to the continued decrease in long-term immigration to study and work” as well as a gradual increase in long-term emigration.

It adds: “The fall in total immigration in the latest year may be partly because of the immigration rule changes which occurred at the beginning of 2024.”

These changes, which were introduced by the previous Conservative government, restricted most overseas students and care workers from bringing dependents, and increased the salary threshold for skilled workers.

Past net migration trends

In the decade prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, net migration figures had fluctuated, but with the exception of 2020 (when travel patterns were heavily disrupted due the the pandemic), were consistently above 150,000 per y

Looking back further, IPS-based figures show net migration was broadly negative in the 1960s and 1970s (in other words, more people were leaving the country than arriving), but was increasing by the mid-1990s. Since 1994, more people have arrived in the UK than have left every year, and net migration has not fallen below 100,000 since 1998, other than during the pandemic.

However it’s not true, as Reform UK claimed during the general election, that under the previous government more migrants arrived in the UK in two years than “between 1066 and 2010”.

The picture going forward

In May 2025 the government set out a number of measures intended to further control legal migration, saying net migration “must come down”.

But it’s worth noting that projections and forecasts published before the new measures were set out were already indicating that migration was likely to decrease from the very high levels seen in the past few years anyway, and this is borne out by the most recent figures.

The ONS has not yet said how the changes to its methodology impact its projections for net migration going forward. But in November, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast net migration will be 262,000 in mid-2026 and around 340,000 by 2031. This is a slight increase compared to the most recent data, but much lower than the record levels seen in 2023.

The OBR attributes this to “the tightening of visa rules in recent years and a rise in emigration, especially among students, following several years of elevated immigration.”

Although net migration is expected to be much lower than in the past few years, immigration is still forecast to significantly increase the overall population of the UK over the next few years.

Who is migrating to the UK?

In the year ending June 2025, the majority of people who migrated to the UK (75%) were non-EU+ nationals. Sixteen percent were British nationals, and nine percent EU+ nationals. The top five non-EU+ countries of origin were India (143,000 migrants), China (66,000), Pakistan (63,000), Nigeria (40,000) and Nepal (21,000).

Between 2012 (when administrative data-based migration statistics were first published) and 2018, net migration to the UK from the EU exceeded non-EU national net migration. However the number of EU immigrants has been falling since 2016, and net migration from the EU has actually been negative since 2022, meaning more EU nationals are leaving the UK than arrivi

ONS figures show half of EU+ nationals who migrated to the UK in the year to June 2025 did so for work, with the remainder arriving either to study or for family reasons.The most common reason for migration to the UK among non-EU+ nationals was study (43%), followed by work (26%, including both main applicants and dependents). Around 14% of non-EU+ nationals arrived in the UK to seek asylum.

The majority of migrants to the UK arrive here legally. However the number of migrants arriving via irregular methods (particularly by small boats) has increased considerably in recent years.

The ONS does not publish data on the proportion of migrants who arrive in the UK “legally” or “illegally”. However Home Office data shows that in the year ending June 2025 there were 49,341 irregular arrivals detected, 88% of whom arrived on small boats.

The vast majority of small boat arrivals claim asylum in the UK, although in the year ending June 2025 these claims accounted for fewer than 40% of all asylum claims in the UK.

The ONS has said “by its very nature it is impossible to quantify accurately the number of people who are in the country illegally”, but added: “While ONS data do not identify illegal migrants separately, many will be included in the data. Those who overstay their visa would have been counted in ONS immigration figures by the International Passenger Survey (IPS) when they originally entered the country and those who arrived illegally and then subsequently claimed asylum will also be included.”

How does migration to the UK compare internationally?

The Migration Observatory suggests that the UK has experienced “broadly similar levels of migration compared to other high-income countries, on average, over the past few decades”.

Measuring the impact of migration by comparing the size of the foreign-born population as a percentage of the total population, the Observatory found that the share of foreign-born residents in the UK was similar to other ‘high-income’ countries. Both the UK and US foreign-born population share was 15% in 2023.

This was slightly higher than France (14%), but lower than Spain (17%) and Germany (18%).