How many people come to the UK each year?
Published 24 May 2019
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-march-2019/how-many-people-come-to-the-uk-each-year
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Data in this section relate to the year ending March 2019 and all comparisons are with the year ending March 2018, unless indicated otherwise. A more detailed annual summary can be found in ‘Immigration statistics, year ending June 2018’.
This section contains data on:
- the number of passenger arrivals by people entering the UK
- Grants of Entry clearance visas to individuals outside the UK
Further information on visitors to the UK is provided in the chapter on people coming to the UK to visit.
1. Immigration to the UK
There were an estimated 143.9 million passenger arrivals in the year ending March 2019 (including returning UK residents), a 4% increase compared to the previous year and the highest number on record. The latest data show:
- British, other European Economic Area (EEA) and Swiss nationals increased by 6% to 124.3 million; data from 2018 (the latest available by nationality group) suggests that around one-third of these were EEA and Swiss nationals
- Non-EEA nationals decreased by 7% to 19.6 million; data from 2017 (the latest available by nationality) suggest that around 29% of these were US nationals
Most non-EEA nationals do not require a visa to visit or transit the UK, although they do still require a visa to come for other reasons. Therefore, the number of arrivals will be much higher than the number of visas granted.
There were nearly 3.0 million visas granted in the year ending March 2019, a 9% increase of 252,338 compared with the previous year, continuing the upward trend seen over the last decade. Of these, over three-quarters (77%) were to visit, 8% were to study (excluding short-term study), 6% were to work and 2% were for family reasons.
Figure 2: Passenger arrivals to the UK, by nationality group, 2009 to 2018
Source:
2. 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.
Data on passenger arrivals are not directly comparable with data on Entry clearance visas granted for several reasons. A summary of what each dataset counts is provided below.
2.1 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.
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).
2.2 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 a visa more than once in a given period, this has been 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 has been 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.
2.3 Landing cards
On 5 August 2017, the Home Office launched a consultation on a proposal to end 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 how to respond to the consultation, which closed on 2 September 2017. The Government confirmed in the Spring Statement that to coincide with the ePassport gates expansion, the government will begin to abolish landing cards for non-EEA travellers, and 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 7 more countries.
3. Data tables
Data on arrivals are available in:
Data on Entry clearance visas and sponsored visa applications for the Work, Study and Family routes (described further in the Work topic, Study topic and Family topic) can be found in the following tables:
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