Accredited official statistics

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

Updated 13 June 2024

Back to ‘Immigration system statistics, year ending March 2024’ content page.

Data relates to the year ending March 2024 and all comparisons are with the year ending March 2023 (unless indicated otherwise). All data includes dependants, unless indicated otherwise.

1. Passenger arrivals to the UK

This section presents the latest statistics relating to passenger flows across the border. Most passenger arrivals will be British nationals (many of whom will be returning from short trips outside the UK), and short-term visitors (such as those coming to the UK for a holiday). More information on the data sources can be found in the ‘About the statistics’ section below.

In the year ending March 2024 there were 125.5 million arrivals, 13% more than the preceding year.

Passengers arriving by air accounted for 88% of all passenger arrivals to the UK (across all routes) in the year ending March 2024, with 7% arriving via rail and 5% by sea. These are similar to the proportions for the year ending March 2023

Figure 1: Monthly air passenger arrivals to the UK, January 2020 to March 2024

Source: Passenger arrivals - Arr_01

Notes:

1. Data prior to 2022 comes from Advanced Passenger Information (API) and is not directly comparable to data from Borders and Immigration Transaction Data (BITD).

From March 2020, following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, various measures were introduced to restrict global travel and the spread of the virus. These measures (testing and Passenger Locator Forms) were phased out in the first few months of 2022, with travel to the UK increasing, as the comparison against 2023 and 2024 shows in Figure 1.

Figure 2: Monthly passenger arrivals to the UK, by nationality, January 2022 to March 2024

Source: Passenger arrivals - Arr_02

In the year ending March 2024, 55% of total arrivals were British nationals. This proportion typically remained between 50 to 60% with some fluctuations which may be due to seasonal trends or differing patterns in holidays.

Prior to 2022 during periods with notable COVID-19 restrictions, such as early 2021, the proportion of British nationals was as low as 31%, which aligned with the lowest overall air passenger arrivals with other nationals also decreasing. As passenger numbers increased from July 2021 onwards, we also saw that proportion increase beyond 50%.

2. Visitors and short-term stays

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 2.0 million visitor visas granted in the year ending March 2024, 30% higher than the year ending March 2023 and 17% lower than 2019, prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Visitor visa grants have continued to increase post-pandemic but are still below their peak in 2019 (2.4 million).

In the year ending March 2024, Indian nationals accounted for 25% of Visitor visas granted (511,167), with Chinese nationals accounting for 23% (455,600). The next largest visa nationalities were Turkish (7%), Nigerian (5%), South African and Pakistani (both 4%).

The increase in the latest year was largely accounted for by 348,861 more visitor visas for Chinese nationals, over 4 times the number in the year ending March 2023 but 29% fewer than in the year ending December 2019. Visitor visas for Indian nationals increased in the latest year by 6%.

The ETA scheme opened to Qatari nationals on 15 October 2023. From 1 February 2024, the scheme also opened to nationals of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. To the end of March 2024, there were 183,642 applications for ETAs and 180,518 grants.

Table 1: Applications and Outcomes for ETAs by Nationality, to the end of March 2024

Nationality	Applications	Issued
Jordan	112,198	110,186
Saudi Arabia	25,812	25,436
Kuwait	14,600	14,322
United Arab Emirates	7,684	7,417
Qatar	19,434	19,296
Bahrain	2,305	2,267
Oman	1,605	1,593
Other and unknown	4	1
Total	183,642	180,518

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 1.4 million other grants of entry clearance in the year ending March 2024, 8% fewer than in the year ending March 2023. This was made up of Work (605,264), Study (562,403), Family (79,384) and ‘Other’ (125,861) visas, which includes the Ukraine schemes (33,071).

Figure 3: Entry clearance visas granted by route (main applicants and dependants) between the year ending March 2015 and the year ending March 2024

Source: Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes – Vis_D02

Notes:

1. Other includes Ukraine Scheme Visas, British National (Overseas), EEA and EUSS Permits.

Total visa numbers are now higher than pre-pandemic levels with almost 3.4 million visas granted in the year ending March 2024. Figure 3 shows that the increase within the last year is primarily due to 459,482 more visitor visas, which now make up over half (59%) of total entry clearance visas granted in the year ending March 2024. However, the number of visitor visas issued is 13% lower than in the year ending March 2020, prior to the pandemic.

By contrast, there are now more work and study visas granted in the year ending March 2024 (1.7 million) than in the year ending March 2020 (597,958). There were also 125,861 visas granted for other reasons in the year ending March 2024, (including grants of leave on the Ukraine Schemes and the British National (Overseas) route), which is less than half (-60%) the number compared to the previous year. Family visas have remained 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

The statistics in this release relate to the number of passengers crossing the border through legitimate routes. The method used to measure those arriving in the UK have been improved and differ from methods used previously and published regularly in the ‘admissions’ data tables, which are now a part of the ‘Passengers refused entry at the border’ summary tables. Further information on the differences between these methods can be found in the user guide. Any nationality breakdowns are based on the nationality associated with the passport used to enter the UK (regardless of any dual nationality held).

The statistics include people entering the UK on most air, sea and rail routes, and while they include the vast majority of arrivals, there are some coverage gaps. For example, people entering the UK via the Common Travel Area (CTA) between the UK and Ireland are not required to present their passport on entry to the UK and will not be included in the data.

Previous Passenger Arrivals reports used Advance Passenger Information (API) data, which primarily relates to passengers coming to the UK via commercial aviation routes. The data does not include those arriving by sea or rail routes, by private vessel. As a result, figures in this report may differ from passenger arrival statistics published elsewhere, however, the levels should be broadly comparable.

4.2 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 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
• Passenger arrivals summary tables

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