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Developments in migration statistics

Updated 29 February 2024

The Home Office publishes a range of statistics on different aspects of the immigration system in its Migration statistics collection. Our statisticians ensure that the migration statistics are kept under review, and that we continually improve and enhance both the statistics themselves and users’ understanding of them.

We aim to provide robust evidence and advice to inform government policy development and operational decision-making. We also inform public debate by making a wide range of statistics available for public use and to aid the accountability of the Home Office to parliament and the public.

This publication outlines changes made to migration statistics over the previous year and expected developments in the future. We welcome feedback on these plans.

1. Improving Home Office migration statistics

1.1 Data tables

In August 2023, a GOV.UK page was introduced to provide a single location for all up to date data tables that make up the immigration system statistics publication. This supports users to find the most recent data, all in one place.

1.2 Accessibility

We have updated our published charts and statistical commentary, in line with accessibility guidelines, helping to ensure that they meet all user needs.

We have added boxes containing key statistics and headlines within the statistical commentary to highlight the most critical data. This will help all users understand the key messages of the statistics.

We have made improvements to allow users to find the most recent statistical releases and research papers. We have improved the migration analysis collection page on GOV.UK to allow users to browse a comprehensive collection of Home Office statistics, research, transparency data and other types of analysis, on the topic of migration. We have also added text on previous publications, pointing users to the most recent quarter of statistics.

1.3 Managed migration

The quarterly Immigration system statistics publications have included statistics on new routes introduced following the UK’s departure from the EU, including:

• Student and Child Student (quarter 4, October to December, 2020)
• Skilled Worker, Skilled Worker – Health & Care and Frontier Worker (quarter 4, October to December, 2020)
• Graduate (quarter 3, July to September, 2021)
• Creative Worker and International Sportsperson (quarter 4, October to December, 2021)
• High Potential Individual (HPI) and Global Business Mobility (quarter 2, April to June 2022)
• Scale-Up (quarter 3, July to September, 2022)
• Electronic Travel Authorisation (quarter 4, October to December, 2023)

Further details on new routes and policy changes can be found in the Policy and legislative changes affecting migration to the UK: timeline.

From quarter 1 (January to March) 2023 we have released Sponsored entry clearance visa data by occupation, industry, and nationality. The ‘Why do people come to the UK? To work’ topic also includes statistical commentary for occupations under the Skilled Worker Health and Care visa for wider context. This is an area that has a lot of policy and stakeholder interest, and the statistics are key to understand the sectors using migrant workers, and the countries they come from.

In August 2023 we published applications and grants of British Citizenship under new routes introduced in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, such as a Chagossian registration route. More information can be found in the Policy and legislative changes affecting migration to the UK: timeline.

The Migrant journey report provides a longitudinal analysis of changes in migrants leave. In recent years we have developed the structure of the report and published additional breakdowns to better inform our users. In the 2022 report, we included data on people on the BN(O) and Ukraine visa schemes and will continue to monitor trends for these cohorts. We included analysis on the proportion of migrants’ journeys with a recorded arrival to provide additional information on visa usage, as well as analysis of average time between visa grant and arrival. The report also included information on EEA nationals for the first time.

We are currently working on improvements to the Migrant Journey report. In our next release, we will provide an update on individuals “departing in-time from the UK”, previously published as part of our Exit Checks series. We also intend to provide more detailed analysis on routes of interest, such as those on the Graduate route. We will continue to develop our analysis to understand migration patterns of asylum seekers and refugees more generally.

1.4 Safe and legal routes

We have combined data on various safe and legal routes to the UK in one topic in the Immigration systems statistics publication. This provides users with a more coherent narrative on individuals offered protection via the Ukraine Schemes, BN(O) Hong Kong scheme, family reunion, and resettlement and relocation schemes including the Afghan schemes (ACRS and ARAP). We have also brought this data into one comprehensive summary table (Asy_11) to help users find the data in one place.

Since March 2022, the Home Office have published weekly statistics on the Ukraine Schemes. This contains the latest operational data on applications to come to or stay in the UK under the Schemes. Home Office work collaboratively with Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), who also publish weekly Ukraine Sponsorship visa data by UK country (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), and upper and lower tier local authority. As Ukraine visa scheme trends are stabilising, we will be reviewing the frequency of weekly statistics.

1.5 Regional breakdowns

We have collaborated with DLUHC to develop a more comprehensive view of vulnerable migrant cohorts. To support the work by local authorities and other local partners we now publish a set of tables which provide statistics for individual local authorities for people in the UK under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme, the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ACRS and ARAP), and asylum seekers in receipt of support.

1.6 Asylum

Following the increasing interest in use of hotels to accommodate asylum seekers, we have expanded our accommodation-type breakdowns to provide the number of asylum seekers accommodated in hotels.

We have expanded our data tables to include a breakdown of the asylum initial decision backlog according to different legislative cohorts (that is, the legacy backlog and flow backlog – see summary tables Asy_10a and Asy_10b).

1.7 Irregular migration (including small boats)

In January 2023, the Home Office took over the daily publication of small boat arrival data (previously published by the Ministry of Defence) and we have now added a table providing the number of small boat arrivals each day containing data back to 1 January 2018. This data supplements the quarterly summary in the Irregular migration statistics report and additional ad hoc statistics published over 2023.

1.8 Enforcement

More timely returns data is now available. Previously, data on returns was published one quarter behind other immigration system statistics. This lag was to allow more time for returns (particularly ‘other verified returns’) to be entered on the caseworking systems prior to publication, thereby ensuring that the published data was accurate. Following improvements to our processing, we are now able to report on the data in a timelier way, in line with other Immigration system statistics.

1.9 EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

Following the opening of the EU Settlement Scheme on 29 March 2019, the Home Office has published both monthly and quarterly statistics on the scheme. The EU Settlement Scheme quarterly statistics continues to provide updated information on the scheme. In 2023 we have continued to revise the statistical commentary to provide the best statistics to users.

1.10 Ad hoc statistical releases

Since April 2023, the Home Office has published ad hoc statistics on Illegal Migration to support the government in accounting for progress in key policy areas. The data includes a range of data on small Boats, asylum processes and immigration enforcement. These statistics releases support the Office for Statistical Regulation’s principle of Intelligent transparency.

2. IT systems development work

The UK’s Immigration system is undergoing a period of change with the introduction of the Illegal Migration Act, and the points-based system and new immigration routes following the UK’s exit from the EU. In bringing EU nationals into the global visa system, there are a variety of policy changes that have required adaptations in the production and presentation of statistics made available by the Home Office. The Illegal Migration Act will change the law to prevent those who enter illegally from being able to remain in the UK. Illegal entrants will be detained and removed, after which they will have no right to re-entry, settlement, or citizenship. Safe and legal routes to the UK will be promoted. Any changes, including new routes or schemes will be clearly signposted in relevant statistical publications.

Simultaneously, Home Office IT systems are undergoing significant transformation, including the introduction of new case working systems to replace legacy immigration casework systems from which administrative data used in the migration statistics are derived. This case working system transformation, along with the supporting data infrastructure changes that must follow, will continue during 2024. We expect to maintain the core functions of the systems over this period, including the development and publication of new migration statistics.

These changes should begin to deliver a variety of new capabilities once they are fully in place, from which we will investigate the potential of the new systems and explore the feasibility of adding information to the published statistics.

3. Working jointly with the Office for National Statistics

The Home Office is committed to supporting the Office for National Statistics (ONS) cross-government programme of work on developing migration statistics and to continue to work together, along with our partners from the Government Statistical Service in other departments, to ensure that the statistical information on migration in the public domain is coherent and helps to inform both policy development and the public debate.

ONS’ analysis of Home Office Borders and Immigration data continues to be a key aspect of their migration statistics development programme. The Home Office provides both data and advice to support ONS analysts in their understanding of immigration data and help shape the development of new ONS migration statistics.

In November 2023, the ONS published their latest long-term international migration estimates drawing on Home Office administrative data to inform their estimates of non-EU migration.

We continue to work closely with ONS on future developments, including to understand whether similar methodology can be applied to EEA nationals.

4. Future plans

We are committed to continually improve the user experience and accessibility of the migration statistics publications for all our users. This includes adapting the style of our topics and reports to support users and increase accessibility of key information. We are also reviewing how information is accessed and viewed on mobile devices.

Work is underway to explore the feasibility of matching entry clearance visa data with Certificate of acceptance of Sponsorship (CaS) data with the aim of better understanding the education and institution of sponsored study visa holders. This work is expected to support statistical commentary and analysis in the ‘Why do people come to the UK? To Study’ topic within future immigration system statistics publications.

We are exploring a new data source to provide a comprehensive picture on passenger arrivals. We will provide further updates in future editions of the immigration system statistics.

We are working to resume reporting on grants of extensions of permission to stay by previous category of stay. This data was previously published until 2020, when a change to caseworking systems meant the data was no longer available.

5. Accredited Official Statistics

In 2024, the immigration system statistics and other migration statistics releases will become Accredited Official Statistics. These data, formerly known as ‘National Statistics’, are ‘Accredited Official Statistics’. National Statistics is the legal term set out in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 for ‘Accredited Official Statistics’ that have been judged by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR), to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics (“the Code”). This means these statistics meet the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value as set out in “the Code”. Further information about accredited official statistics can be found on the OSR’s website.

The UK Statistics Authority’s Office for Statistical Regulation undertook a full assessment of the Home Office immigration statistics in February 2012. The continued designation of these statistics as National Statistics was again confirmed in September 2018, following a further compliance check by the Office for Statistics Regulation.