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Net immigration to the UK exceeded 900,000 for the year to June 2023, the highest annual total on record and much more than previously thought, according to official figures issued on Thursday.
The revised Office for National Statistics figure of 906,000 for the period, in the aftermath of the pandemic, far outstripped the previous estimate of 740,000. It reflects more information on people arriving from Ukraine and a better count of people already in the UK gaining new long-term visas.
The ONS added that net immigration has since fallen 20 per cent to 728,000 for the 12 months to June this year.
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The decline came after the UK’s previous Conservative government, which left office in July, tightened controls on international students and care workers.
Figures for visa applications in the year to September, released separately by the Home Office on Thursday, suggest that the decline in net immigration is now gathering pace, with a drop of 65 per cent in applications for health and care workers, a drop of 19 per cent in students and of 84 per cent in dependants of students.
The ONS said the decline in net migration in the year to June was mostly due to fewer family members accompanying students, and students who had arrived in earlier years returning home.
There has also been a rise in emigration by EU nationals.
The figures showed that around 1mn out of 1.2mn people who came to live in the UK in the year to June were non-EU nationals. Of these, 845,000 were of working age and 179,000 were children. The top countries of origin were India, Nigeria, Pakistan, China and Zimbabwe.
Around 295,000 non-EU nationals came to study, similar to the previous year’s intake of students, but they brought fewer family members with them, reflecting new immigration rules that banned students on one year masters courses from bringing dependants.
Around 184,000 non-EU nationals came on work visas, down from 219,000 in the year to December 2023. The number of family members joining them increased to 233,000, from 166,000 in the year to June 2023.
However, this is likely to reflect a rush to secure visas before a ban on care workers bringing family to the UK took effect. The ONS said the most recent figures showed signs of a fall.
Asylum seekers accounted for 84,000 or 8 per cent of arrivals in the UK from outside the EU, including those coming through regular and irregular routes, such as small boats.
Separately home office quarterly statistics released on Thursday showed an 18 per cent decline in the number of migrants arriving through irregular channels to the year ending September. Of these nearly 30,000 or 81 per cent crossed the Channel in small boats, slightly lower than a year earlier.
This story has been amended to clarify that the previous estimate for net migration for the 12 months to June 2023 was 740,000
