Accredited official statistics

How many people come to the UK each year (including visitors)?

Published 23 February 2023

‘Immigration system statistics, year ending December 2022’ contents page.

This is not the latest release. View latest release.

Data relate to 2022 and all comparisons are with the calendar year 2019 (unless indicated otherwise), reflecting a comparison with the period prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Year ending comparisons that follow will include impacts resulting from the restrictions in place during this period of the pandemic.

1. Passenger arrivals to the UK

There were an estimated 104.9 million passenger arrivals from outside the Common Travel Area (CTA) in 2022 (including returning UK residents). The latest number is around two thirds of the total number of arrivals in 2019 (146.3 million), the period immediately before the COVID-19 outbreak. This was more than 3 times (+248%) as many as in 2021 (30.1 million), when travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic were still in place.

2. Grants of Entry clearance visas to individuals outside the UK

Only certain nationalities (‘visa-nationals’) are required to obtain an entry clearance visa before coming to visit the UK, which is one reason why there are considerably more passenger arrivals than visas granted. There were 2,836,490 visas granted in 2022, 11% fewer (-335,239) than 2019, primarily due to 1.0 million fewer grants of Visitor visas, although the total number of grants continues to increase in the aftermath of the global pandemic. Of the visas granted in the latest 12 months, 49% were to visit, 22% were under the study routes, 15% were under the work routes, 3% were for family reasons, and 11% for other reasons (including grants of leave on the Ukraine Schemes and British National (overseas) (BN(O) route).

Figure 1: Total entry clearance visas granted, year ending December 2013 to year ending December 2022

Source: Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes – Vis_D02

Figure 1 shows that the total number of visas granted rose to a high of 3.2 million in 2019. The number then fell significantly due the COVID-19 pandemic, to below one million, but has increased in the last year and a half as international travel has recovered.

3. Arrival Patterns during the 2020-22 COVID-19 pandemic

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic the Home Office published statistics on air arrivals to the UK over a period when travel was severely curtailed.

Figure 2: Rolling weekly air passenger arrivals to the UK, January 2019 to June 2022

Source: Air passenger arrivals data tables, June 2022 - Air_01

As can be seen in Figure 2, air arrivals to the UK fell significantly in March 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, following the start of the first UK lockdown. There was an increase in the number of arrivals in the summer of 2020, but numbers in the peak of summer (August 2020) were still 74% lower than the same month in 2019. After the summer, air arrivals decreased again due to a combination of tightened restrictions towards the end of 2020 and the typical seasonal patterns in air travel, which is lower in winter months. Air arrivals began to increase from summer of 2021 and all remaining travel restrictions were phased out in the first few months of 2022. Arrivals reached a 2 year high of 8,366,800 in the month of June 2022.

Further information about these statistics can be found in the last edition of the report ‘Statistics relating to passenger arrivals since the COVID-19 outbreak, August 2022’ published in August 2022. Further updates for air arrival data will be included in this chapter on passenger arrivals, as new border statistics systems are introduced over the course of the coming year.

4. Visitors to the UK

Many nationalities, including US nationals do not normally require a visa to visit the UK; consequently, there are considerably fewer Visitor visas granted than visitor arrivals. Nonetheless, for those nationalities required to obtain a visa before visiting the UK, there were 1,795,963 applications for Visitor visas in 2022, 35% fewer than 2019, reflecting the continued impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the same period, there were 1,399,756 Visitor visas granted, 42% fewer than 2019, with the largest falls seen for Chinese (down 577,193 or 90%) and Russian (down 107,863 or 81%) visitors. The fall in grants is primarily driven by the fall in applications for Visitor visas, notably from Chinese, Russian and Saudi nationals who have seen falls in applications by 89%, 76% and 75% respectively compared to 2019. It is not currently possible for people from Russia to fly directly (or via EU countries) to the UK, so Russian nationals granted a visa are likely to have arrived from other countries and will include Russian nationals who live outside of Russia.

Indian nationals now account for the highest proportion (30%) of Visitor visas granted, of those nationalities who require a visa. They have overtaken China who were the largest nationality pre-pandemic and accounted for over a quarter (27%) of grants in 2019 but only 5% in 2022. Nigerian (7%), South African (6%), Pakistani (6%) and Turkish (6%) nationals were the other top 5 Visitor visa nationalities in 2022.

In 2022, the grant rate for Visitor visas was 78%, a decrease of 10 percentage points compared to 2019 (88%). Of the top 20 nationalities with Visitor visa outcomes, the majority (75%) saw a decrease in grant rate.

Additional information on visitors to the UK is published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in its publication ‘Overseas travel and tourism statistics’.

5. Visa schemes for Ukrainians

During March 2022, the UK Government introduced 2 new visa routes to allow persons affected by the crisis in Ukraine to come to the UK. Introduced on 4 March 2022, the Ukraine Family Scheme allows applicants to join family members or extend their stay in the UK. The Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme was introduced on 18 March 2022 and allows Ukrainian nationals and their family members to come to the UK if they have a named sponsor under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme.

Further information can be found in the ‘Statistics on Ukrainians in the UK’ chapter in this latest Home Office Immigration System Statistics release.

6. British National Overseas (BN(O)) route

On 31 January 2021, the UK Government introduced a new immigration route for British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) status holders from Hong Kong, providing the opportunity for them and their family members to live, work and study in the UK. Data for in country applications is taken from management information and has been rounded to the nearest hundred. Detailed datasets for out of country applications and grants in this route can be found in entry clearance visa applications and outcomes under the BN(O) route visa type.

There have been a total of 160,700 applications for the BN(O) route in the almost 2 years since its introduction on 31 January 2021 up to the end of December 2022.

Between October and December 2022, there were 10,100 applications for the BN(O) route, with 8,462 out of country applications, and 1,700 in country applications. Of the total, 6,400 applications relate to main applicants and 3,700 relate to dependants.

There have been a total of 129,415 grants of out of country BN(O) visas made between 31 January 2021 and 31 December 2022. 105,200 people have arrived in the UK on the scheme since it began. And a total of 24,293 grants of in country BN(O) visas made between 31 January 2021 and 31 December 2022.

From October to December 2022, there were 8,222 grants of out of country BN(O) visas, of which 5,025 were for main applicants and 3,197 were for dependants. 11,000 individuals arrived during this quarter. There were 910 grants of in country BN(O) visas made from October to December 2022, of which 487 were main applicants and 423 were dependants.

There were 271 out-of-country BN(O) visa refusals, and 82 in-country BN(O) visa refusals from October to December 2022.

As expected, since the route launched the majority of grants (63%) were to BN(O) and/or Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) passport holders, with a further 36% being Chinese passport holders (many of whom will have been living in Hong Kong). For main applicants, 92% were HKSAR/BN(O) passport holders. For dependants, 77% were Chinese passport holders, and 21% were HKSAR/BN(O) passport holders.

7. About these statistics

The statistics in this section provide an indication of the number of people who enter the UK.

The data do not show whether, or when, an individual arrived in the UK, what they did on arrival to the UK or how long they stayed in the UK.

Many nationalities do not normally require a visa to visit the UK. As a result, they will be counted in the passenger arrivals data but not in the visa data. A list of designated nationalities referred to as ‘visa nationals’ who do require a visa in order to visit the UK can be found in Immigration Rules Appendix V: visitor rules.

For several reasons, data on passenger arrivals are not directly comparable with data on Entry clearance visas granted. A summary of what each dataset counts is provided in section 7.1 and section 7.2.

7.1 Passenger arrivals

Data on passenger arrivals relate to the number of arrivals into the UK. The data include British, EEA and Swiss nationals, as well as non-EEA nationals. For non-EEA nationals who are subject to immigration controls, more detailed information is available on their nationality and purpose of their journey up until 2018.

Passenger arrivals are counted each time an individual enters the UK. Where an individual enters the UK more than once in a period, they will be counted each time they enter (but if they arrive each time on the same visa, they will be counted once in the visas data).

Visitor arrivals data included in this topic are based on landing cards completed as people cross the border. In light of the introduction of new digital systems at the border, the use of landing cards was reviewed. The review resulted in the decision to remove the need for non-EEA nationals to complete a landing card on arrival into the UK. Further data relating to visitor arrivals will not be available until an alternative method of collection is developed.

BN(O) arrival figures are rounded to the nearest 100 and relate to individuals who arrived into the UK, where the arrival has been linked to an out of country BN(O) visa. Where individuals have multiple visits, only the first arrival after the BN(O) grant has been counted. This data therefore counts people, rather than arrivals. Individuals arriving during the latest quarter may have received their grant in an earlier quarter. The data used to record arrivals on a BN(O) visa may undercount the total number of arrivals. For example, arrivals of those travelling into the UK from the Common Travel Area (from Ireland) will not be captured in the data. See the Home Office statistics on exit checks: user guide for more details.

7.2 Entry clearance visas

Data on entry clearance visas in this section refer to the number of visas granted for all reasons within the period. References in the statistics to ‘visas’ will also include entry clearance ‘permits’, such as EEA and EU Settlement Scheme Family permits, or Frontier Worker permits. If an individual was granted multiple visas in a given period, this will be counted as multiple grants in the statistics. If an individual entered the UK multiple times within the period for which a visa was valid, this will be counted as one grant in the visa statistics, but multiple arrivals in the passenger arrivals data.

Year-on-year comparisons of the number of decisions can be affected by quarterly fluctuations in the data. Such fluctuations can be examined in more detail in the quarterly data that are available in the published tables.

Several known factors may have affected the number of applications and outcomes of visit-related visas over time. For example, the Home Office launched a two-year Chinese visa pilot in January 2016 for Chinese nationals. The increase in longer-term Visitor visas may affect the number of subsequent re-applications by Chinese nationals.

More information on non-visitor arrival and visa data by category is included in ʻWhy do people come to the UK? To work’, ʻWhy do people come to the UK? To study’ and ʻWhy do people come to the UK? For family reasons’.

In January 2021, the UK Government introduced a new immigration route for British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) status holders, providing the opportunity for them and their family members to live, work and study in the UK. This route opened on 31 January 2021 and is open to individuals who hold a BN(O) passport and are, or have recently been, resident in Hong Kong, and their dependants.

8. Data tables

• Sponsorship summary tables
• Detailed sponsorship datasets
• Entry clearance visas summary tables
• Detailed Entry clearance visas datasets
• Admissions summary tables

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