Net immigration to UK at record high but pace of inflows is slowing, says ONS

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Net immigration to the UK hit 672,000 in the year to June, but inflows appear to have slowed, the Office for National Statistics said on Thursday.

The figures, which reflect legal rather than undocumented migration, are highly politically sensitive after more than a decade in which the ruling Conservative party has promised to bring the numbers down.

Rishi Sunak, prime minister, has said previous inflows were “too high”.

The ONS said that there were 1.2mn long term immigrants during the 12 months to June 2023, of whom almost 1mn were non-EU nationals, while emigration totalled 508,000.

It added that the increase in non-EU immigration, up 120,000 on the previous year, was largely because of migrants coming for work, in particular in the health and care sectors, with a smaller proportion of people coming for humanitarian reasons.

As well as providing net immigration figures of 672,000 for the 12 months to June, the ONS said that for the calendar year 2022 net migration reached 745,000 — an upward revision of 139,000 from its previous estimate.

The impact of Brexit was highlighted by the increase in the net-migration of non-EU nationals from 179,000 in the 12 months to June 2019 to 768,000 in the period ending in June this year.