National statistics

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

Updated 23 September 2022

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Data relate to the year ending June 2022 and all comparisons are with 2019 (unless indicated otherwise), reflecting a comparison with the period prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a global pandemic. A range of restrictions were implemented in many parts of the world, and the first UK lockdown measures were announced on 23 March 2020. 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. All statistics include dependants, unless indicated otherwise.

This section contains data on:

• Passenger arrivals to the UK
• Grants of Entry clearance visas to individuals outside the UK
• Visitors to the UK
• Visas and extensions for the British National Overseas (BN(O)) route

1. Passenger arrivals to the UK

There were an estimated 69.5 million passenger arrivals from outside the Common Travel Area (CTA) in the year ending June 2022 (including returning UK residents). This was more than three times (+253%) as many as in the year ending June 2021 (19.7 million), when travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic were still in place. However, this was only around half of all arrivals in 2019 (146.3 million), the period immediately before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Detailed information on monthly air passenger arrivals during this period is provided in the separate Home Office report Immigration and border statistics relating to COVID-19.

These data show that in the two-year period between April 2020 and March 2022, air passenger arrivals to the UK were, on average, 79% lower than levels seen prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. Air travel to the UK has started to recover in 2022, returning to close to pre-pandemic levels. It reached a two-year high of 8,366,800 in the month of June 2022, with just 22% fewer arrivals than in June 2019 (10,770,400).

Figure 1: Passenger arrivals to the UK, by nationality group¹, years ending June 2013 to June 2022

Source: Passenger arrivals (admissions) summary table – Adm_01

Notes:

1. Nationality breakdowns for 2019 onwards are not available (see ‘Landing cards’ section in the ‘About the Statistics’ section).

Figure 1 shows that, over the last decade, arrivals prior to the pandemic had been increasing each year. However, the number of passenger arrivals decreased sharply following the introduction of COVID-19 travel restrictions from March 2020. Arrivals in the year ending June 2022 were around half of the number in the year ending June 2019. Arrival figures include British citizens and resident foreign nationals returning to live in the UK along with other foreign nationals and short-term visitors.

Only certain nationalities (‘visa-nationals’) are required to obtain an entry clearance visa before coming to visit the UK, which is one reason why there are considerably more passenger arrivals than visas granted. There were 2,082,321 visas granted in the year ending June 2022, 34% fewer (-1,089,408) than calendar year 2019, which was primarily due to 1.5 million fewer grants of Visitor visas, although the total number of grants continued to increase in the aftermath of the global pandemic. Of the visas granted in the latest 12 months, 45% were to visit, 24% were to study, 16% were to work, 2% were for family reasons, and 14% for other reasons (including grants of leave on the Ukraine Schemes and BN(O) route).

Figure 2: Total entry clearance visas granted, years ending June 2013 to June 2022

Source: Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes – Vis_D02

Figure 2 shows that the total number of visas granted had been broadly constant between 2013 and 2016 at around 2.5 million per year and then rose steadily to a high of 3.2 million in 2019. The number then fell significantly due the COVID-19 pandemic, to below 1 million, but has started to increase in the last year as international travel and other restrictions have been lifted.

2. Visitors to the UK

Many nationalities, including US nationals (who accounted for over a quarter of non-EEA passenger arrivals in 2018) do not normally require a visa to visit the UK; consequently, there are considerably fewer Visitor visas granted than visitor arrivals. Nonetheless, from those nationalities required to obtain a visa before visiting the UK, in the year ending June 2022 there were 1,362,928 applications for Visitor visas, 51% fewer than the calendar year 2019, a reduction largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the same period, there were 927,222 Visitor visas granted, 62% fewer than calendar year 2019, with the largest falls seen for Chinese (down 612,495 or 95%) and Indian (down 256,120 or 50%) nationals. Indian nationals accounted for the highest proportion (28%) of Visitor visas granted. They have overtaken China who were the largest nationality pre-pandemic, accounting for over a quarter (27%) of grants in 2019, but only 3% in the year ending June 2022. Nigerian (8%) and Saudi (7%) nationals were the second and third largest nationalities in the latest year.

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

3. Ukraine schemes

During March 2022, the UK Government introduced two new routes to allow persons affected by the crisis in Ukraine to come to the UK. Introduced on 4 March 2022, the Ukraine Family Scheme allows applicants to join family members or extend their stay in the UK. The Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme was introduced on 18 March 2022 and allows Ukrainian nationals and their family members to come to the UK if they have a named sponsor under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme.

Further information can be found in the ‘Statistics on Ukrainians in the UK’ chapter.

4. British National Overseas (BN(O)) route

On 31 January 2021, the UK Government introduced a new immigration route for British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) status holders from Hong Kong, providing the opportunity for them and their family members to live, work and study in the UK. Data for in country applications is taken from management information and has been rounded to the nearest hundred. Detailed datasets for out of country applications and grants in this route can be found in entry clearance visa applications and outcomes under the BN(O) route visa type.

There were 18,100 applications for the BN(O) route in Q2 of 2022, with 17,406 out of country applications, and 700 in country applications. Of the total, 10,600 applications relate to main applicants and 7,500 relate to dependants. There have been a total of 140,500 applications for the BN(O) route since its introduction on 31st January 2021 up to the end of June 2022.

There were 18,587 grants of out of country BN(O) visas made in Q2 of 2022, of which 11,072 were for main applicants and 7,515 were for dependants. There were 878 grants of in country BN(O) visas made in Q2 of 2022, of which 473 were main applicants and 405 were dependants. There has been a total of 110,504 grants of out of country BN(O) visas made between 31st January 2021 and 30th June 2022, and a total of 22,620 grants of in country BN(O) visas made between 31st January 2021 to 30th June 2022.

There were 89 out-of-country BN(O) visa refusals, and 7 in-country BN(O) visa refusals in Q2 of 2022.

As expected, since the route launched the majority of grants (64%) were to BN(O) and/or Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) passport holders. Dependants holding passports for countries other than BN(O) and/or HKSAR accounted for 77% of grants to dependants, including 75% who held Chinese passports.

In 2021, management information shows that 8,350 BN(O) and/or HKSAR passport holders were granted “leave outside the rules” at the UK border.

5. 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 nationalities 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.

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 in sections 5.1 and 5.2.

5.1 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.

5.2 Entry clearance visas

Data on entry clearance visas in this section refer to the number of visas granted for all reasons within the period. References in the statistics to ‘visas’ will also include entry clearance ‘permits’, such as EEA and EU Settlement Scheme Family permits, or Frontier Worker permits. 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’.

In January 2021, the UK Government introduced a new immigration route for British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) status holders, providing the opportunity for them and their family members to live, work and study in the UK. This route opened on 31 January 2021 and is open to individuals who hold a BN(O) passport and are, or have recently been, resident in Hong Kong, and their dependants.

5.3 Landing cards

On 20 May 2019, the Home Office 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. 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. Data on the total number of passenger arrivals will continue to be available as this comes from a different source. Further information can be found in the user guide.

6. 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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