Accredited official statistics

Summary of latest statistics

Updated 13 June 2024

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

This Accredited Official Statistics publication provides key statistics describing the UK Immigration System. This summary chapter provides a brief overview, with key statistics from each of the chapters in the full report.

Figure 1: Summary of the UK immigration system^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}, year ending March 2024

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 March 2024.
5. Immigration detention relates to the number of people in detention on 31 March 2024.
6. In the year ending March 2024, just over a third of the total number of people claiming asylum were small boat arrivals.

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

Key statistics:

• in the year ending March 2024 there were 125.5 million arrivals, 13% more than the preceding year, including British nationals and other people who do not require a visa to travel
• there were 3.4 million entry clearance visas granted in the year ending March 2024, of which more than half (59%) were visitor visas. This number is 7% higher than prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic
• there were over 450,000 more visitor visas in the latest year
• in the year ending March 2024, there were 180,518 Electronic Travel Authorisations (ETAs) granted

Figure 2: 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. Family includes EEA and EUSS Permits.
2. Other includes Ukraine Scheme Visas and British National (Overseas).

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 315,018 visas granted to work in the year ending March 2024, more than double (+130%) the number prior to the pandemic in 2019
• ‘Skilled Worker – Health and Care’ visas have provided the majority of the growth in work visas in the last 2 years, following the expansion of the route in late 2021 to include ‘care workers and home carers’, with 118,522 grants to main applicants in the latest year
• in the first quarter of 2024, there were 9,088 ‘Skilled Worker – Health and Care’ visas granted, 75% fewer than the first quarter of 2023 due to a large fall in visas for ‘Care workers and home carers’
• there were 290,246 visas granted to dependants of people who had been granted a work visa, 55% more than in the year ending March 2023, primarily in the Health and Care sector
• 139,175 ‘Graduate’ route extensions were granted to main applicants in the year ending March 2024, 49% higher than in the year ending March 2023, accounting for 40% of work extensions to main applicants. For more graduate route analysis see ‘Analysis of migrants use of the Graduate route’

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:

• there were 446,924 sponsored study visas granted to students in the year ending March 2024, 6% fewer than the previous year but 66% higher than 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic
• two-thirds (66%) of student visas were for a masters level course in the year ending March 2024
• grants of extensions to study for main applicants decreased by 38% to 35,175 in the year ending March 2024, compared to the previous year

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 79,384 family-related visas issued in the year ending March 2024, an increase of 22% from year ending March 2023
• grants of extensions into family-related routes decreased by 15% to 113,933 in the year ending March 2024, compared to the previous year
• those arriving on family routes have historically been more likely to acquire indefinite leave to remain (ILR) than those arriving on work and study visas, with 83% of those on family routes having ILR after 10 years, compared to 21% for work and 7% for study routes

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 the year ending March 2024, 95,685 people were offered a safe and legal (humanitarian) route to come to, or remain in, the UK
• there were 66% fewer visas granted on a safe and legal (humanitarian) route in the year ending March 2024 when compared to the previous year, largely due to the reduction in the numbers on the Ukraine Visa and Extension Schemes

Figure 3: People offered safe and legal (humanitarian) routes to the UK, by route, 2019 to March 2024

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 14% fewer Asylum applications in the year ending March 2024 (69,298 applications, relating to 86,719 people), in part due to the decrease in claims from Albanian small boat arrivals
• there were more than 4 times as many initial decisions on asylum applications in the year ending March 2024 (87,535 decisions) than in the previous year due to more asylum decision makers and increased productivity
• 62% of the initial decisions in year ending March 2024 were grants – a lower proportion than the 74% granted in year ending March 2023
• at the end of March 2024, the number of asylum cases awaiting an initial decision (86,460 cases, relating to 118,329 people) was more than one-third (35%) lower than at the end of March 2023

Figure 4: Asylum applications and initial decisions, year ending March 2002 to year ending March 2024

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 129,029 grants of settlement in the UK in year ending March 2024, similar to the year ending March 2023
• there were 215,706 grants of British citizenship in year ending March 2024, 19% more than the year ending March 2023

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

8. How many people are granted settlement via the EU Settlement Scheme?

Key statistics:

• there have been 7.9 million EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) applications made by 6.3 million people since the scheme launched up to 31 March 2024
• 5.7 million people had obtained a grant of status since the scheme launched up to 31 March 2024
• 7.8 million applications had been concluded since the scheme launched up to 31 March 2024, of which 49% (3.8 million) were granted settled status, 36% (2.8 million) were granted pre-settled status and 14% had other outcomes

For further details see ‘EU Settlement Scheme statistics’.

9. How many people are detained or returned?

Key statistics:

• 16,031 people entered immigration detention in the year ending March 2024, 23% fewer than the previous year, continuing the downward trend since 2015, and partly because small boat arrivals are now processed at Manston rather than in the detention estate
• over one-third (34%) of people leaving detention in the year ending March 2024 were removed from the UK, up from 20% in the previous year, mostly due to a rise in returns of Albanian nationals
• total enforced returns increased by 70% to 7,016 in the year ending March 2024, around the same level they were in 2019, largely due to a doubling of Albanian enforced returns last year to 2,842
• foreign national offender (FNO) returns increased by 34% in the year ending March 2024, following the introduction of new measures to facilitate FNO removals

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

10. 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’.

10.1 Irregular migration

Key statistics:

• there were 38,546 irregular arrivals detected in year ending March 2024, down 28% from the previous year
• there were 31,079 small boat arrivals in year ending March 2024 (81% of total irregular arrivals), down 31% on the previous year
• Afghans were the top small boat arrival nationality, accounting for 19% of small boat arrivals in year ending March 2024
• there were 2,178 returns in the year ending March 2024 of people who had previously arrived in the UK on a small boat, more than 3 times higher than the previous year (643)

For further details see ‘Irregular migration to the UK’. For more recent data on daily small boat arrivals see ‘Small boat activity in the English Channel’.

10.2 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’.

10.3 Migrant Journey

The Migrant Journey report provides evidence on the behaviour of migrants entering the UK immigration system for the main routes of entry to the UK and the common pathways through the immigration system that result in settlement. Extracts of the analysis feature throughout the Immigration System statistics. For the full report see ‘Migrant journey’.

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