National statistics

Summary of latest statistics

Published 29 February 2024

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

The Immigration system statistics (ISS) include a range of statistics relating to the operation of the immigration system. This summarises key statistics for each topic.

Figure 1: Summary of the UK immigration system^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}, year ending December 2023

Notes:

1. This diagram is a simplification of the immigration system for illustrative purposes only. It doesn’t include some parts of the immigration system such as people crossing the border who do not require a visa, or irregular arrivals.
2. Data across the immigration system in this diagram is not always directly comparable and is rounded to the nearest thousand, or the nearest hundred if less than 10,000.
3. Safe and legal (humanitarian) routes include visas granted on the Ukraine, Hong Kong BN(O) and family reunion routes, as well as refugee resettlement and relocation in the UK.
4. The EU settlement scheme (EUSS) figure relates to grants of settled status or pre-settled status, in the year ending December 2023.
5. Immigration detention relates to the number of people in detention on 31 December 2023.
6. The latest available data to year ending June 2023 shows around a third of asylum claims are from small boat arrivals.

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

Key statistics:

• there were 3.40 million entry clearance visas granted in 2023, 20% higher than 2022 and 7% higher than prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic
• the increase within the last year is primarily due to 560,365 more visitor visas, which made up over half (58%) of total visas granted in 2023 although the 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%)
• in 2023, there were 12,190 applications for Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) and 12,076 grants, all applications were for Qatar nationals

Figure 2: Entry clearance visas granted by route (main applicants and dependents), 2014 to 2023¹

Source: Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes – Vis_D02

Notes:

1. Family includes EEA and EUSS Permits.

For further details see ‘How many people come to the UK each year (including visitors)?’.

2. Why do people come to the UK? To work

Key statistics:

• there were 337,240 work visas granted to main applicants in 2023, 26% higher than in 2022, and almost two and half times more than prior to the pandemic in 2019
• while ‘Skilled Worker’ visas have remained consistent in the past year (-1%), ‘Skilled Worker – Health and Care’ visa grants have almost doubled (+91%) to 146,477, largely driven by ‘Care workers and home carers’, representing 89,236 grants in 2023
• there were 279,131 grants to dependants of people who had been granted a work visa, 80% higher than 2022; this was due to the increase in the ‘Health and Care’ worker route - dependants on this route accounted for 73% of all work dependent visas granted
• in 2023, grants of an extension in work routes for main applicants increased by 48% to 310,056, primarily driven by extensions in the ‘Skilled Worker - Health and Care’ visa route and the ‘Graduate’ work route
• a total of 114,409 ‘Graduate’ route extensions were granted to main applicants in 2023, 57% higher than 2022, accounting for over a third (37%) of work extensions to main applicants

For further details see ‘Why do people come to the UK? To work’.

3. Why do people come to the UK? To study

Key statistics:

• in 2023, there were 457,673 sponsored study visas granted to main applicants, 5% fewer than 2022, but 70% higher than 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic
• 90% of those applying for sponsored study visas were for higher education institutions (such as universities); this sector has accounted for most of the growth in students in recent years
• in 2023, grants of extensions into Sponsored study routes for main applicants decreased by 15% to 41,359, compared with 2022, (48,857)

For further details see ‘Why do people come to the UK? To study’.

4. Why do people come to the UK? For family reasons

Key statistics:

• there were 81,203 family-related visas issued in 2023, an increase of 72% from 2022 and the highest calendar year on record
• in 2023, grants of extensions into family-related routes decreased by 20% to 108,230, compared with 2022, (135,288)
• there were 17,169 EUSS family permits granted in 2023, 45% fewer than 2022

For further details see ‘Why do people come to the UK? For family reasons’.

5. Safe and legal (humanitarian) routes to the UK

Key statistics:

• in 2023, 102,283 people were offered a safe and legal (humanitarian) route to come to, or remain in, the UK; almost half were on Ukraine schemes
• the number of people offered a safe and legal (humanitarian) route in 2023 was 66% less than the number in 2022, largely due to the reduction in the number of Ukraine Visa and Extension Schemes

Figure 3: People offered safe and legal (humanitarian) routes to the UK, by route, 2019 to 2023

Source: Asylum and resettlement summary tables - Asy_11

For further details see ‘Safe and legal (humanitarian) routes to the UK’.

6. How many people do we grant protection to?

Key statistics:

• there were 67,337 asylum applications (relating to 84,425 people) in the UK in 2023, 17% lower than the number of applications in 2022
• at the end of December 2023, there were 95,252 cases awaiting an initial decision, 28% fewer than at the end of December 2022
• at the end of December 2023, there were 111,132 individuals in receipt of asylum support, 10% fewer than at the end of September 2023 and similar to the end of December 2022; of these, 45,768 people (41%) were in hotel accommodation; the number of people supported in hotels was down 18% from 56,042 at the end of September 2023
• in 2023, there were 74,172 initial decisions made on asylum applications, almost 4 times more than in 2022; this increase is linked to more asylum decision makers and increased productivity
• just over two-thirds (67%) of the initial decisions in 2023 were grants – a lower proportion than the three-quarters (76%) granted in 2022; 62,336 people were granted refugee status or other protection following an asylum application in 2023; this is the highest number of people granted since records began (in 1984), due to the combination of a high grant rate and high volumes of decisions being made

Figure 4: Asylum applications and initial decisions, 2001 to 2023

Source: Asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement – Asy_D01 and Asy_D02

For further details see ‘How many people do we grant protection to?’.

7. How many people are granted settlement or citizenship?

Key statistics:

• there were 119,150 grants of settlement in the UK in 2023, 9% fewer than in 2022
• there were 202,041 grants of British citizenship in 2023, 15% more than in 2022

For further details see ‘How many people are granted settlement or citizenship?’.

8. How many people are detained or returned?

Key statistics:

Immigration detention

• 15,864 people entered immigration detention, 24% fewer than the previous year, partly because small boat arrivals are now processed at Manston rather than in the detention estate; this continues a long-term downward trend since 2015
• 33% of people leaving detention in 2023 left due to removal from the UK, up from 20% in the previous year; this increase was mostly driven by a rise in returns of Albanian nationals

Returns

• enforced returns increased by 66% to 6,393, although remain low by historical standards (11% lower than in 2019); the increase is partly due to Albanian enforced returns more than doubling from last year (958 to 2,501)
• voluntary returns increased by 76% to 19,253 (53% higher than in 2019)
• there were 3,926 FNO returns (up 27%) during 2023; almost half (49%) were EU nationals, and 37% were Albanians

For further details see ‘How many people are detained or returned?’.

9. Additional Home Office migration statistics.

The Home Office publishes a range of migration analysis. Details on the developments and future plans for Home Office ‘Immigration system statistics’ can be found in ‘Developments in migration statistics’.

9.1 Irregular migration

Key statistics:

• there were 36,704 irregular arrivals detected in 2023, down 33% from 2022
• there were 29,437 small boat arrivals in 2023 (80% of total irregular arrivals), down 36% on 2022
• Afghans were the top small boat arrival nationality, accounting for 20% of small boat arrivals in 2023
• there were 1,889 returns of small boat arrivals in 2023, almost 5 times higher than in 2022 (379)

For further details see ‘Irregular migration to the UK’. For more recent data on daily small boat arrivals see ‘Migrants detected crossing the English Channel in small boats’.

9.2 European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

Key statistics:

• there have been 7.7 million EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) applications made since the scheme launched
• these applications relate to 6.2 million people (some people will have multiple applications)
• 5.7 million people had obtained a grant of status through the scheme (3.7 million settled status and 2 million pre-settled status)

For further details see ‘EU Settlement Scheme statistics’.

9.3 Migration transparency

Figures on performance against service standards and processing times are published as part of the Home Office migration transparency. For further details see ‘Migration transparency data’.

We welcome your feedback

If you have any comments or suggestions for the development of this report, please provide feedback by emailing MigrationStatsEnquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk. Please include the words ‘PUBLICATION FEEDBACK’ in the subject of your email.

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of our documents. If you find any problems or have any feedback relating to accessibility, please email us.

See section 6 of the ‘About this release’ section for more details.