The UK’s net migration rate has decreased by half. The recent government data shows that the long-term net migration in UK is down by almost 50%.
In 2024, there were more people leaving the UK than immigrants coming into the country. The number of people immigrating minus the number of people emigrating is provisionally estimated to be 431,000 in year ending (YE) December 2024, compared with 860,000 a year earlier.
Net migration is long-term immigration (people coming to the UK long-term) minus long-term emigration (people leaving the UK long-term).
In 2024, 266,000 non-EU+ nationals came to live in the UK for study-related reasons. This is closely followed by work-related immigration (262,000 people).
Those immigrating for study-related and work-related reasons have decreased by around 37% and 42%, respectively, since year ending December 2023. Indian was the most common non-EU+ nationality for work and study.
This change is driven by a decrease in immigration from non-EU+ nationals, where the UK is seeing reductions in people arriving on work- and study-related visas.
Simultaneously an increase in emigration over the 12 months to December 2024 was seen. People leaving are originally who came on study visas once pandemic travel restrictions to the UK were eased.
The provisional estimate for total long-term immigration for YE December 2024 is 948,000, a decrease of almost a third from the revised YE December 2023 estimate of 1,326,000 and the first time it has been below 1 million since YE March 2022.
The provisional estimate for total long-term emigration for YE December 2024 is 517,000, an increase of around 11% compared with the previous year (466,000). Emigration is now at a similar level to YE June 2017.
For non-EU+ nationals, there was around a 49% decrease in immigration for work (main applicants) compared with the revised estimate for the previous year-ending period. This was the largest numerical decrease (108,000) of all groups.
The decrease in immigration for study (main applicants) was smaller at around 17%, for the same period.
There was an 86% (105,000) reduction in the number of study dependants, the largest percentage decrease, and a 35% (81,000) decrease in the number of work dependants.
Recent decreases in work-related and study-related immigration are related to policy reforms early in 2024 that restricted most overseas students from bringing family members to the UK, restricted care workers from bringing family members and increased salary thresholds for those on Skilled Worker visas.
From January 1, 2024, international students were no longer able to bring dependants on all but postgraduate research courses and courses with government-funded scholarships.
From April 4, 2024, the baseline general salary to be sponsored for a ‘Skilled Worker’ visa increased from £26,200 to £38,700, while the ‘going rate’ minimum salary specific to each job has also gone up significantly. A list of jobs for which it is possible to sponsor someone for a ‘Skilled Worker’ visa at a reduced minimum salary was reduced and renamed the Immigration Salary List.
From April 11, 2024, the minimum income normally required to sponsor someone for a spouse/partner visa was increased from £18,600 to £29,000. Further, from March 11, 2024, social care workers arriving from overseas are no longer allowed to bring dependants (that is, partners and children) on their visas.