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 since it entered government has announced a series of changes which it says will “restore control” over the immigration system.

Figures published in May 2026 estimate that net migration to the UK in the year to December 2025 was 171,000, compared with 331,000 in the year to December 2024—a 48% 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 article was last updated on 17 June 2026 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 813,000 long-term immigrants arrived in the UK in the year ending December 2025.

Over the same period, emigration from the UK totalled an estimated 642,000, meaning net migration to the UK was estimated to be 171,000.

This represents an almost 48% fall compared to the same period the previous year, when net migration to the UK was 331,000.

As we’ve explained above these net migration estimates may be revised at a later date.

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.”

However, continued falls in net migration since 2023 have seen levels return to close to where they stood before the UK formally left the EU in 2021.

The ONS says that the decrease seen in the most recent figures is primarily due to a fall in the number of non-EU+ nationals arriving for work-related reasons, and that the fall in total immigration “may be partly” due to immigration rule changes implemented in 2024 and 2025.

Past net migration trends

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

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 2024 general election campaign, 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”. The government has not set a specific target for the level of net migration it is aiming to achieve.

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

The most recent ONS population projections are for net migration to total 2.2 million between mid-2024 and mid-2034—a lower level than previous projections. Net migration is expected to be the sole contributor to population growth over this period as UK deaths are projected to outnumber UK births.

These figures are based on assumptions made using past trends—they are not forecasts or predictions of how migration will change going forward.

Meanwhile, the Office for Budget Responsibility’s most recent forecast assumes annual net migration will average 230,000 between 2026 and 2030.

Who is migrating to the UK?

In the year ending December 2025, the majority of people who migrated to the UK (77%) were non-EU+ nationals. Fourteen percent were British nationals, and nine percent EU+ nationals. The top five non-EU+ countries of origin were India (139,000 migrants), Pakistan (56,000), China (54,000), Nigeria (47,000) and Nepal (24,000).

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 arriving.

ONS figures show half of EU+ nationals who migrated to the UK in the year to December 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 (47%), followed by work (23%, including both main applicants and dependents).

How much of immigration is illegal?

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 December 2025 46,497 people were detected arriving via “illegal entry routes” detected, 89% of whom arrived on small boats.

The vast majority of small boat arrivals claim asylum, although in the year ending December 2025 these claims accounted for around two-fifths of all asylum claims in the UK.

The ONS told Full Fact: “Our research into estimating unauthorised immigration involves assessing and combining several data sources that cover the different ways a migrant could be classed as unauthorised. These include exploring data on the number of detected arrivals via illegal routes to the UK, people claiming asylum by route of entry and child citizenship and registration data. We are also exploring HO voluntary and involuntary returns data and a method to account for overstayers in LTIM emigration estimates.”

How much of migration is due to asylum seekers?

Following the publication of migration statistics in November 2025 and May 2025 it was reported in the media that asylum seekers now make up around half of net migration to the UK.

Asylum-related net migration in the year to June 2025 was 87,000—which would be equivalent to around 40% of overall net migration. In the year to December 2025 it was 83,000—which would be equivalent to around 49% of overall net migration.

However, the ONS told Full Fact that it does not recommend presenting the figures in this way. The figures for net migration do not equate to individual people, so attempting to work out the proportion of one group compared to another does not produce a meaningful figure.

In addition, relatively few asylum seekers emigrate, whereas the overall net migration figure is heavily impacted by emigration.

The ONS said that a more appropriate way to give a sense of the scale of asylum seekers relative to overall migration would be either through the total number of immigrants who are asylum seekers (approximately 11% in the year ending December 2025), or by looking at asylum-related net migration as a percentage of non-EU net migration specifically (approximately 24%).

How much of the recent fall in migration is due to British nationals leaving?

In November 2025, the ONS announced further changes to the ways in which data for British and EU+ (the EU, plus Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland) 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, and have led to claims that there’s been an “exodus” of British nationals under Labour. We wrote more about the impact of these revisions on the statistics here.

In reality, the ONS says that emigration of British nationals has been “broadly stable” recently. It’s decreased slightly since 2024, from 257,000 in the year ending December 2024 to 246,000 in the year ending December 2025.