National statistics

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

Published 29 February 2024

Back to ‘Immigration system statistics, year ending December 2023’ content page.

Data relates to 2023 and all comparisons are with 2022 (unless indicated otherwise). All data includes dependants, unless indicated otherwise.

1. Passenger arrivals to the UK

Passenger arrival data includes all arrivals at the UK border through legal routes. Many of those arrivals (such as British nationals, Non-visa nationals coming to visit, and persons with indefinite leave to remain) do not require prior permission (such as a visa) to enter the UK. Others will require permission to enter, such as a visa.

There were an estimated 132 million passenger arrivals from outside the Common Travel Area (CTA) in 2023 (including foreign tourists and returning UK residents). This was 23% more than 2022 (109 million), which reflects an increase in global travel after restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic were removed in early 2022. However, numbers remain 10% lower than in 2019, before the pandemic.

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic the Home Office published additional detailed statistics on air arrivals to the UK over a period when travel was severely reduced. A full account of the pattern in air passenger arrivals over the pandemic period can be found in the last edition of the report ‘Statistics relating to passenger arrivals since the COVID-19 outbreak’ (Home Office, August 2022).

2. Visitors and Short term stay

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. Additionally, passenger arrivals will include British nationals. Many nationalities, including US nationals do not normally require a visa to visit the UK; consequently, there are considerably fewer visitor visas granted than visitor arrivals.

There are several ways a non-British national may get permission to visit the UK for a short, temporary period, (usually up to 6 months), for purposes such as tourism, visiting friends or family, carrying out a business activity, or undertaking a short course of study.

• visa nationals must apply online for an entry clearance visa in advance of travel
• non-visa nationals can be granted leave to enter on arrival at the UK border
• people with existing immigration status do not need additional documents
• the electronic travel authorisation (ETA) scheme is for visitors who do not need a visa for short stays to the UK, or who do not already have a UK immigration status prior to travelling; further information can be found on the Electronic travel authorisation (ETA) guidance page.

There were 1,956,526 visitor visas granted in 2023, 40% higher than 2022 and 19% lower than prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Visitor visa grants have continued to increase post-pandemic but are still below the peak in 2019 (2,413,461).

In 2023, Indian nationals accounted for more than a quarter (26%) of Visitor visas granted, with Chinese nationals accounting for another fifth (21%). The next largest visa nationality were Turkish nationals (6%).

The increase in the latest year was due to 349,045 more visitor visas for Chinese nationals, over 6 times the amount in 2022 but 36% fewer than in the year ending 2019. Visitor visas for Indian nationals increased in the latest year by 22%.

The ETA scheme opened to Qatari nationals on 15 October 2023. In 2023 quarter 4 (October to December) , there were 12,190 applications for ETA and 12,076 grants, all applications were for Qatar nationals. From 1 February 2024, the scheme opened to nationals of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

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

3. Other grants of Entry clearance visas

There were 1,440,611 other grants of entry clearance in 2023, similar to 2022. This is made up of Work (616,371), Study (605,504), Family (98,998)¹ and ‘Other’, which includes the Ukraine schemes (119,738).

Figure 1: Entry clearance visas granted by route (main applicants and dependents) between 2014 and 2023¹

Source: Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes – Vis_D02

Notes:

1. Family includes EEA and EUSS Permits.

Total visa numbers are now higher than pre-pandemic levels with almost 3.4 million visas granted in 2023. The increase within the last year is primarily due to 560,365 more visitor visas, which now make up over half (58%) of total entry clearance visas granted in 2023 although this visitor number is 19% fewer than in 2019, prior to the pandemic. In contrast, there are now more work and study visas granted in 2023 (36%) than in 2019 (19%). There were also 119,738 visas granted for other reasons in 2023, including grants of leave on the Ukraine Schemes and the British National (overseas) route), which is down 183,180 (-60%) to 119,738 in the last year. Family visas have continued to remain stable within this period.

4. About these statistics

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

The data does 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 to visit the UK can be found in Immigration Rules Appendix V: visitor rules.

For several reasons, data on passenger arrivals is not directly comparable with data on Entry clearance visas granted. A summary of what each dataset counts is provided in section 4.1 below and section 4.2.

4.1 Passenger arrivals

Data on passenger arrivals relates to the number of arrivals into the UK. The data includes 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 is 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. 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.

4.2 Entry clearance visas

Data on entry clearance visas in this section refers 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 is 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 2-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’.

For more information on specific routes to the UK, including Ukraine Visa Schemes and British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) visas, see the ‘Safe and legal (humanitarian) routes to the UK’.

5. 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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