National statistics

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

Published 25 February 2021

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Data relate to the year ending December 2020 and all comparisons are with the year ending December 2019, unless indicated otherwise.

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a global pandemic. A range of restrictions relating to the outbreak began on 12 March 2020, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advised against all non-essential overseas travel on 17 March 2020, and advised all British travellers to return to the UK on 23 March 2020, the same day as the first UK lockdown measures were announced.

Restrictions were put in place across Europe and other parts of the world in the run up to the UK outbreak, which will also have impacted travel to the UK prior to these dates. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the UK immigration system, both in terms of restricting migrant movements to and from the UK and the impact on operational capacity.

Year ending comparisons that follow will include impacts resulting from the restrictions put in place during this period of the pandemic. Commentary specifically addressing changes over the course of the pandemic is also provided at the end of this section.

This section contains data on:

• Passenger arrivals to the UK
• Grants of Entry clearance visas to individuals outside the UK
• Visitors to the UK

1. Passenger arrivals to the UK

There were an estimated 39.5 million passenger arrivals in 2020 (including returning UK residents), a 73% (106.8 million) decrease compared with the previous year. This was driven by significantly fewer passenger journeys in the last three quarters of 2020, when there was an 87% (101.7m) decrease compared to the same period in the previous year, due to the travel restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional information on passenger arrivals during this period is provided in the separate Home Office collection Immigration and border statistics relating to COVID-19.

Figure 1: Passenger arrivals to the UK, by nationality group, 2011 to 2020

Source: Passenger arrivals (admissions) summary table – Adm_01_q
Notes:

1. Nationality breakdowns for 2019 are not currently available, as the data were derived from landing cards (see ‘Landing cards’).

In 2018, the latest period for which a breakdown is available, there were 142.9 million passenger arrivals, of which 81.7 million (57%) were returning British citizens, 40.8 million (29%) other EEA nationals and 20.4 million (14%) from outside the EEA. Only certain nationalities (‘visa-nationals’) are required to obtain an Entry clearance visa before coming to the UK, which is why there are considerably more passenger arrivals than visas granted.

There were just under one million visas granted in 2020, 69% fewer than the previous year, and a similar reduction as overall arrivals. Of the visas granted, around half (51%) were to visit, 23% were to study (excluding short-term study), 13% were to work, 4% were for family, and 9% for other reasons.

Figure 2: Entry clearance visas granted, years ending 2011 to 2020

Source: Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes – Vis_D02

1.1 The impact of COVID-19

The number of passenger arrivals over the course of 2020, following the introduction of travel restrictions from March 2020, was considerably lower than in a normal year. In the fourth quarter of 2020 (October to December), although there were an estimated 4.8 million passenger arrivals (including returning UK residents), this was 85% (27.7 million) fewer than the same period in 2019. In the third quarter (July to September), in the busy summer period and between the two periods of more significant restrictions on travel, there had been an estimated 9.3 million passenger arrivals (including returning UK residents), still 79% (36.0 million) fewer than the same period in 2019.

Figure 3: Passenger arrivals to the UK, by month, 2019 and 2020

Source: Passenger arrivals (admissions) summary table – Adm_01_q

In addition to data published here, the Home Office has published Statistics relating to passenger arrivals since the COVID-19 outbreak, February 2021 which includes data up to January 2021 showing the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. These data are not directly comparable with the passenger arrivals data reported here as they come from different sources. However, given the clear public interest in passenger arrivals since the COVID-19 pandemic, this data has been made available as a supplement to the data published in the Quarterly Immigration Statistics.

The additional report contains more detailed information (including daily arrival figures) relating to all passengers arriving into the UK by air between January 2019 and January 2021. These data show that there were around 630,000 passenger arrivals to the UK by air routes in the month of January 2021 (from API data). Although higher than the average for April to June 2020, following the start of the first UK lockdown, when there were less than 200,000 air arrivals per month, the number remains substantially lower than levels seen prior to the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK – around 9% of the number of arrivals in January 2020 (7.1 million).

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, visa application centres were closed by 31 March 2020 and only began gradually reopening from June 2020.

Visitor visa applications and grants were close to zero during April and May 2020. Operations began to recover slowly from June and numbers of grants continued to grow in the third quarter, although numbers then remained stable in the fourth quarter at a much lower level than 2019. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the number of visitor visa applications was 57% lower than the same period in 2019 and there were 62% fewer visitor visas granted.

Figure 4: Visitor visas issued, by month, 2019 and 2020

Source: Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes: Vis_D02

2. Visitors to the UK

Many nationalities, including US nationals (who account for one-third of non-EEA passenger arrivals) do not normally require a visa to visit the UK; consequently, there are considerably fewer Visitor visas granted than visitor arrivals. In 2020, there were 589,838 applications for Visitor visas, which was just over one fifth (21%) of the number in the previous year, a reduction largely a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the same period, there were 506,644 Visitor visas granted. Chinese (111,336) and Indian (51,864) nationals together accounted for 32% of all Visitor visas granted.

Additional information on visitors to the UK are published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in its quarterly Overseas travel and tourism statistics.

3. About these statistics

The statistics in this section provide an indication of the number of people who enter the UK.

The data do not show whether, or when, an individual arrived in the UK, what they did on arrival to the UK or how long they stayed in the UK.

Many non-EEA nationals do not normally require a visa to visit the UK. As a result, they will be counted in the passenger arrivals data but not in the visa data. A list of designated nationalities referred to as ‘visa nationals’ who do require a visa in order to visit the UK can be found in Immigration Rules Appendix V: visitor rules.

EEA and Swiss nationals do not require a visa to come to the UK for any reason.

For several reasons, data on passenger arrivals are not directly comparable with data on Entry clearance visas granted. A summary of what each dataset counts is provided below.

3.1 Passenger arrivals

Data on passenger arrivals relate to the number of arrivals into the UK. The data include British, EEA and Swiss nationals, as well as non-EEA nationals. For non-EEA nationals who are subject to immigration controls, more detailed information is available on their nationality and purpose of their journey up until 2018.

Passenger arrivals are counted each time an individual enters the UK. Where an individual enters the UK more than once in a period, they will be counted each time they enter (but if they arrive each time on the same visa, they will be counted once in the visas data).

Visitor arrivals data included in this topic are based on landing cards completed as people cross the border. In light of the introduction of new digital systems at the border, the use of landing cards was reviewed (see Landing cards). The review resulted in the decision to remove the need for non-EEA nationals to complete a landing card on arrival into the UK. Further data relating to visitor arrivals will not be available until an alternative method of collection is developed.

3.2 Entry clearance visas

Data on Entry clearance visas in this section refer to the number of visas granted for all reasons within the period. If an individual was granted multiple visas in a given period, this will be counted as multiple grants in the statistics. If an individual entered the UK multiple times within the period for which a visa was valid, this will be counted as one grant in the visa statistics, but multiple arrivals in the passenger arrivals data.

Year-on-year comparisons of the number of decisions can be affected by quarterly fluctuations in the data. Such fluctuations can be examined in more detail in the quarterly data that are available in the published tables.

Several known factors may have affected the number of applications and outcomes of visit-related visas over time. For example, the Home Office launched a two-year Chinese visa pilot in January 2016 for Chinese nationals. The increase in longer-term Visitor visas may affect the number of subsequent re-applications by Chinese nationals.

More information on non-visitor arrival and visa data by category is included in ʻWhy do people come to the UK? To work’, ʻWhy do people come to the UK? To study’ and ʻWhy do people come to the UK? For family reasons’.

3.3 Landing cards

On 5 August 2017, the Home Office launched the ‘Consultation on Home Office’s Immigration Statistics - arrivals data’, on ending the requirement for non-EEA passengers to present a paper landing card on arrival into the UK from 1 October 2017. The consultation set out the statistical implications of the change and closed on 2 September 2017. The government confirmed in the Spring Statement 2019 that to coincide with the ePassport gates expansion, the government would begin to abolish landing cards for non-EEA travellers. On 20 May 2019, it removed the need for all non-EEA travellers to fill in landing cards upon arrival in the UK and expanded the use of ePassport gates to seven more countries. The government’s response to the consultation was published in May 2019. As anticipated in the original consultation, ahead of new electronic data sources being developed, the withdrawal of landing cards has resulted in a temporary loss to the passenger arrivals data broken down by nationality and reason for travel. The last set of published data on non-EEA nationals arriving in the UK (based on Landing Cards), cover the period 2004 to 2018) are available in ‘Immigration statistics, year ending June 2019 second edition’. Data on the total number of passenger arrivals will continue to be available as this comes from a different source.

4. Data tables

• Sponsorship summary tables
• Detailed sponsorship datasets
• Entry clearance visas summary tables
• Detailed Entry clearance visas datasets
• Admissions summary tables

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