Net migration to the UK – the number of people arriving, minus those leaving – has fallen close to pre-Covid levels, according to official figures published on Thursday.

How does that sit alongside other key migration measures, including overall immigration, small boat arrivals and visas granted? Scroll down to find out more about the latest key figures, and get answers to key questions on a range of topics.

Produced by: Rob England, Libby Rogers, Jess Carr, John Walton, Becky Dale, Allison Shultes, Chris Kay, Steven Connor and Scott Jarvis.

Graphics by: Jez Frazer and Zoe Bartholomew

*The figure for net migration will not sum exactly to the total of immigration minus emigration, because it is published as a rounded figure by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Figures from government or other official sources used in this report can be revised retrospectively between publications. This page only displays data as it is presented in the latest release.

ONS figures for immigration and emigration are update twice per year.

Small boats figures from the Home Office are updated daily. Asylum, returns and visa figures from the Home Office are updated every three months.

The number of people appealing against a refused asylum decision is updated every three months by the Ministry of Justice at a different time to other government figures on asylum.

Immigration, emigration and net migration

Figures for net migration come from the ONS and use the internationally recognised definition of a long-term migrant: “a person who moves to a country other than that of their usual residence for at least a year.”

Visas for legal migration

Data for total entries via visas only includes those granted. It does not include people coming to the UK on a visitor visa or those on a transit visa – whose final destination is not the UK.

Visa figures do not show if or when an individual arrived in the UK, but marks the point at which they were granted permission to do so.

If someone was granted more than one visa within the year shown, each one is counted separately.

The work category refers to new individuals linked to visas and permits, or the extension of an existing permission. This includes sub-categories such as seasonal, health and care, domestic and youth mobility visas.

Study visas include all sponsored individuals by approved education providers in the UK, and those on short-term study visas.

Family visas lets someone come to the UK or stay longer so they can live with close family members who are already here. It includes joining a spouse, partner, child or parent, or coming to care for a relative.

The Other category refers to miscellaneous visas outside the categories of work, family and study. It includes humanitarian routes such as the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme and the British National Overseas route.

It also includes family permits for people from countries in the European Union or European Economic Area.

Asylum applications and hotels

Figures for asylum seekers in hotels are published by the Home Office under the “contingency accommodation – hotel” category.

The number of people in all other forms of accommodation includes those in non-hotel contingency accommodation, plus initial, dispersal and “other” accommodation.

A scale is used to determine how close a local authority is from the average share of the population for an area in the UK. It compares the share in that area to the share across all areas in the UK that use that form of accommodation.

• Less than half = more than 50% below the average share of the population
• Lower than = between 25% to 50% below the average share of the population
• About the same as = within 25% of the average share of the population
• Higher than = between 25% to 100% above the average share of the population
• More than double = more than 100% above the average share of the population

Figures on the backlog of people waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application include both applicants and dependants.

The number of open appeals against refused asylum applications refers to individuals.

Small boat crossings and other illegal arrivals

The figures for small boat crossings and the average number of people per boat are derived from the UK Home Office’s daily timeseries.

Entering the UK without permission is an offence under immigration law, but asylum seekers are generally not prosecuted for doing so if they claim asylum on arrival. In some cases, people have been prosecuted for entering the UK without permission alongside other offences, such as people smuggling or re-entering after deportation.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) collects figures for people who died or went missing while crossing from mainland Europe to the UK.

These reports are based on French and UK officials (such as police or coastguard) or media sources, and are considered an undercount by the IOM due to a lack of official statistics.

The figures can include people who died in the Channel while crossing, but also those who died at any point while en route to a crossing point.

Data for modern slavery only includes final decisions. Modern slavery includes any form of human trafficking, slavery, servitude or forced labour.

Figures for other entries without permission are the sum of all irregular arrivals that were not by small boat, including inadequately documented air arrivals, recorded detections at UK ports and other recorded detections in the UK.

Returns and deportations from the UK

Figures on people who come to the UK but are denied entry at that point and then leave the country are not included in the number of returns in this page.

People being returned after being convicted of a criminal offence includes people who are not British citizens who have been convicted in the UK of any criminal offence, or convicted abroad for a serious criminal offence.

Returns involving the government include the Home Office categories of enforced returns (also known as deportations) as well as assisted and controlled voluntary returns.

Independent returns are referred to by the government as other verified returns.

UK migration compared with other countries

Sea arrivals figures are taken from the UNHCR European sea arrivals dashboard and combined with UK Home Office figures for small boat arrivals.

Asylum applications, immigration and emigration figures for European countries is the latest available data from Eurostat for the following countries:

Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Norway, Switzerland and Croatia.

Population figures for the UK are from ONS, National Records of Scotland and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency 2024 mid-year estimates, and for Europe from Eurostat data as of 1 January 2024.

In order to account for smaller populations and make European data comparable with the UK, when calculating figures for net migration and asylum applications, European countries with a population of less than one million have been excluded.

Additionally, when calculating net migration, only countries which include asylum seekers or refugees in their immigration figures are included, these are:

Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland.