Accredited official statistics

Summary of latest statistics

Published 22 August 2024

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This Accredited Official Statistics publication provides statistics describing the UK immigration system. This summary chapter provides a brief overview, with a selection of key statistics from each of the chapters in the full report.

The UK immigration system contains a wide range of Home Office activities including issuing short and long term visas to those outside of the UK, extensions and changes to visas, granting of settlement and citizenship to those already in the UK, providing safe and legal (humanitarian) routes of entry, as well as providing asylum and carrying out enforcement action. Figure 1 provides a summary of these different aspects of the immigration system.

Figure 1: Summary of the UK immigration system^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}, year ending June 2024

Notes:

1. This diagram is a simplification and doesn’t include all parts of the immigration system, such as people crossing the border who do not require a visa, or irregular arrivals. Data in different parts of the immigration system is not always comparable.
2. Safe and legal (humanitarian) routes include visas granted on the Ukraine, Hong Kong BN(O) and family reunion routes, as well as refugee resettlement and relocation in the UK.
3. The EU settlement scheme (EUSS) figure relates to grants of settled status or pre-settled status, in the year ending June 2024.
4. Immigration detention relates to the number of people in detention on 30 June 2024.

Overview of people coming to the UK

The majority of the 128.4 million passenger arrivals in the UK in the year ending June 2024 were British nationals. Of the non-British arrivals, most will be short-term arrivals such as visitors, with smaller numbers arriving for other reasons (such as work, study and family).

In the year ending June 2024, 1.16 million visas were granted for work, study or family reasons (including dependants). In the same period, 38,784 people were detected arriving in the UK by irregular routes.

75,167 people were granted permission to come to the UK by safe and legal routes such as the Ukraine and BN(O) schemes, refugee resettlement and family reunion (note family reunion visas are included in the ‘Family visas’ category, not ‘Safe and legal’ in Figure 2) and 45,886 were granted ‘Other’ visas.

Figure 2: Number of visas granted to come to the UK by main category (excluding visitors and transit), and number of detected irregular arrivals, year ending June 2024 (main applicants and dependants)

Source: Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes – Vis_D02, Asylum and resettlement summary tables – Asy_11, Irregular migration to the UK - Irr_D01

Notes:

1. ‘Other visas’ include settlement visas, temporary visas (exc. transit), EUSS family permits and some other family members coming to accompany others.
2. ‘Safe and legal’ includes out of country Ukraine and BN(O) schemes and refugee resettlement. It excludes family reunion visas which are included in ‘Family visas’.
3. Chart does not include visitors or transit visas, those coming to the UK who have indefinitely leave to remain or status on the EU Settlement Scheme, non-visa national visits, or undetected irregular arrivals.

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

Key statistics:

• in the year ending June 2024 there were 128.4 million passenger arrivals, 11% more than the preceding year. This number includes British nationals and people who do not require a visa to travel to the UK
• there were 3.4 million entry clearance visas granted in the year ending June 2024, of which 62% were visitor visas
• there were 2.1 million visitor visas in the latest year, 16% higher than the previous year

2. Why do people come to the UK? To work

Key statistics:

• there were 286,382 visas granted to main applicants in all work categories in the year ending June 2024, 11% fewer than the previous year, but more than double (+109%) 2019 levels
• there were 89,095 ‘Health and Care Worker’ visas granted to main applicants in the year ending June 2024, a 26% decrease compared to the previous year, with a notable fall in the latest quarter (April to June 2024), which was 81% lower than the same period in 2023
• the number of grants to main applicants on other routes in the ‘Worker’ category (which includes ‘Skilled Worker’ visas) has more than doubled since 2021, but in the latest year has fallen by 3% to 88,653
• there were 260,392 visas issued to work dependants in year ending June 2024, with ‘Health and Care Worker’ dependants alone accounting for 69% of the total
• the number of ‘Temporary Worker’ visas granted to main applicants in the year ending June 2024 was 77,419, with 34,332 grants for seasonal workers and 24,091 grants on the Youth Mobility Scheme

For further details see ‘Why do people come to the UK? To work’.

3. Why do people come to the UK? To study

Key statistics:

• there were 432,225 sponsored study visas granted to foreign students in the year ending June 2024, 13% fewer than the previous year but 61% higher than 2019
• two-thirds (65%) of student visas in the latest year were for masters level courses
• in the first 6 months of 2024 (January to June), visas issued to dependants of students fell by 81% to 11,675 compared to the same period in 2023 (main applicants fell by 23% over the same period)

For further details see ‘Why do people come to the UK? To study’.

4. Why do people come to the UK? For family reasons

Key statistics:

• in the year ending June 2024, there were 98,906 family-related visa applications, reflecting a significant 40% increase compared to the previous year
• those arriving on family routes are more likely to stay in the UK than those arriving on work and study visas. Analysis from the Migrant journey: 2023 report shows that of those whose first leave to enter the UK was on the family route since 2007, 62% had indefinite leave to remain (ILR) after 5 years, increasing to 83% after 10 years. This is much higher than those starting on work and study routes, where 21% and 7% respectively had ILR after 10 years

For further details see ‘Why do people come to the UK? For family reasons’.

5. Safe and legal (humanitarian) routes to the UK

Key statistics:

• in the year ending June 2024, 93,342 people were offered a safe and legal (humanitarian) route to come to, or remain in, the UK
• there were 39% fewer visas granted on a safe and legal (humanitarian) routes in the year ending June 2024 when compared to the previous year, largely due to the reduction in the use of Ukraine Scheme Visas and Extensions

Figure 3: People offered safe and legal (humanitarian) routes to the UK, by route, from the year ending June 2019 to 2024

Source: Asylum and resettlement summary tables - Asy_11

For further details see ‘Safe and legal (humanitarian) routes to the UK’.

6. How many people do we grant protection to?

Key statistics:

• over 97,000 people applied for asylum in the year ending June 2024, relating to just over 75,000 applications (8% fewer that the previous year, in part due to the decrease in claims from Albanian small boat arrivals)
• there were 91,885 initial decisions on asylum applications in the year ending June 2024, 4 times as many as in the previous year due to more asylum decision makers and increased productivity
• more than half (58%) of the initial decisions in year ending June 2024 were grants of protection, a lower proportion than the 71% in year ending June 2023
• at the end of June 2024, the number of asylum cases awaiting an initial decision (85,839 cases, relating to 118,882 people) was more than one-third (36%) lower than at the end of June 2023

Figure 4: Asylum applications and initial decisions, year ending December 2001 to year ending June 2024

Source: Asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement – Asy_D01, Asy_D02 and Asy_D03

For further details see ‘How many people do we grant protection to?’.

7. How many people are granted settlement or citizenship?

Key statistics:

• there were 137,020 grants of settlement in the UK in year ending June 2024, 17% more than the year ending June 2023, (117,023)
• there were almost a quarter of a million (246,488) grants of British citizenship in year ending June 2024, over a third (37%) more than the year ending June 2023, (180,243)

For further details see ‘How many people are granted settlement or citizenship?’.

8. How many people are granted settlement via the EU Settlement Scheme?

Key statistics:

• there have been 8.1 million EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) applications made by 6.3 million people since the scheme launched up to 30 June 2024
• 7.9 million applications had been concluded since the scheme launched up to 30 June 2024, of which 50% (3.9 million) were granted settled status, 36% (2.8 million) were granted pre-settled status and 15% had other outcomes

For further details see ‘How many people have been granted settlement via the EU settlement scheme’.

9. How many people are detained or returned?

Key statistics:

• 18,918 people entered immigration detention in the year ending June 2024, 12% fewer than the previous year, continuing the downward trend since 2015, and partly because small boat arrivals are now processed at Manston rather than in the detention estate
• total enforced returns increased by around a half (48%) to 7,190 in the year ending June 2024, around the same level they were in 2019 (7,198) prior to the pandemic, but this was largely due to an 87% rise in Albanian enforced returns last year to 2,822

For further details see ‘How many people are detained or returned?’.

10. Additional Home Office migration statistics

The Home Office publishes a range of migration analysis. Details on the developments and future plans for Home Office ‘Immigration system statistics’ can be found in ‘Developments in migration statistics’.

10.1 Irregular migration

Key statistics:

• there were 38,784 irregular arrivals detected in year ending June 2024, down 26% from the previous year
• there were 31,493 small boat arrivals in year ending June 2024 (81% of total irregular arrivals), down 29% on the previous year
• Afghans were the top small boat arrival nationality, accounting for 18% of small boat arrivals in year ending June 2024
• in the year ending June 2024, just under a third of the total number of people claiming asylum were small boat arrivals
• there were 2,336 returns in the year ending June 2024 of people who had previously arrived in the UK on a small boat, more than double the previous year (1,046)

For further details see ‘Irregular migration to the UK’. For more recent data on daily small boat arrivals see ‘Small boat activity in the English Channel’.

10.2 Migration transparency

Figures on performance against service standards and processing times are published as part of the Home Office migration transparency. For further details see ‘Migration transparency data’.

10.3 Migrant Journey

The Migrant Journey report provides evidence on the behaviour of migrants entering the UK immigration system for the main routes of entry to the UK and the common pathways through the immigration system that result in settlement. Extracts of the analysis feature throughout the Immigration system statistics. For the full report see ‘Migrant journey’.

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