How many people claim asylum in the UK?
Published 22 May 2025
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-statistics-year-ending-march-2025/how-many-people-claim-asylum-in-the-uk
Back to ‘Immigration system statistics, year ending March 2025’ contents page.
Data relates to the year ending March 2025 and all comparisons are with the year ending March 2024 (unless indicated otherwise).
An asylum claim may relate to more than one person, if the main applicant has family members (‘dependants’) who are included in the same claim.
These statistics focus on the number of people (main applicants and dependants) claiming asylum.
Statistics on other parts of the asylum system are available in other chapters of this report - ‘How many people are granted asylum in the UK?’ and ‘How many cases are in the UK asylum system?’.
Additionally, more detail on asylum claims from small boat arrivals is available in the chapter ‘How many people come to the UK irregularly?’.
1. How many people claim asylum in the UK?
Asylum claims have increased from last year, and remain at a record high.
A total of 109,343 people claimed asylum in the UK in the year ending March 2025, which was 17% more than in the year ending March 2024 and 6% more than the previous peak of 103,081 in 2002.
Figure 1: Number of people claiming asylum in the UK, years ending December 2002 to March 20251
Source: Asylum claims and initial decisions - Asy_D01 and Irregular migration to the UK detailed datasets - Irr_D02
Notes:
- Includes main applicants and dependants.
Figure 1 shows that asylum claims were particularly high in the early 2000s, peaking at 103,000 in 2002, due to a large number of people fleeing persecution from countries with conflicts and political instability, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia.
Following this previous peak, from 2004 to 2020 there were between 22,000 and 46,000 people claiming asylum in the UK each year. However, since the second half of 2021, there has been a noticeable increase, with the number of people claiming asylum reaching over 109,000 in the latest year which is the highest number on record (going back to 1979).
The latest quarter (January to March 2025) saw 23,135 people claiming asylum which was 26% fewer than the record level of 31,276 people in the previous quarter (October to December 2024) but 5% more than the same period last year. This fall is partly caused by the fall in claims from small boat arrivals, which were 4,825 lower in the latest quarter than in the previous quarter. The overall number of Syrian claims fell by 81% (from 2,280 to 443) following the decision to temporarily pause decisions on 9 December 2024.
1.1 How and when do asylum seekers travel to the UK?
Some asylum seekers claim asylum immediately upon arrival to the UK, while others may have been present in the UK some time prior to making an asylum claim. Some arrivals on legal visa routes may find during or at the end of their leave that they are unable, or unwilling, to return to their country of origin and therefore claim asylum in the UK.
Since 2020, there has been an increase in people arriving in the UK without leave to enter via small boats across the English Channel. Almost all small boat arrivals claim asylum (99% in the year ending March 2025). As shown in Figure 1, 36,123 people claiming asylum in the year ending March 2025 had arrived on a small boat (33% of the total).
The remaining claimants will have entered either through:
- other irregular routes (such as lorries or shipping containers)
- the common travel area without valid permission to enter
- regular routes with either valid leave to enter (such as using a visa) or using fraudulent documents
Slightly more than a third of people claiming asylum in 2024 (40,000) had travelled to the UK on a visa. The Home Office has recently published additional information on this in the new report: ‘Source of Asylum Claims in 2024’.
2. Who claims asylum in the UK?
Pakistanis, Afghans and Iranians were the most common nationalities claiming asylum, accounting for one quarter of claims in the latest year.
Figure 2: Top nationalities claiming asylum in the UK, years ending March 2015 to March 20251
Source: Asylum claims and initial decisions – Asy_D01
Notes:
- The figure shows the top 5 nationalities claiming asylum in the year ending March 2025 plus Albania. Albania has been presented to reflect that it was a nationality with a large number of asylum claims over recent years but is no longer a top 5 nationality.
Figure 2 shows that the largest percentage increase in claims in the latest year from the top 5 nationalities came from Pakistani nationals (up 58% to 11,048) and Syrian nationals (up 46% to 6,175). Whilst the largest percentage decrease came from Afghan nationals (down 17% to 8,069).
More than half of asylum seekers are adult men.
Table 1: People claiming asylum in the UK, in the year ending March 2025, by age and sex
| Male | Female | |
|---|---|---|
| Aged 17 and under | 12,428 (11%) |
8,414 (8%) |
| Aged 18 and over | 64,993 (59%) |
23,447 (21%) |
Source: Asylum claims and initial decisions – Asy_D01
Adult men account for 59% of total asylum claims in the year ending March 2025. This proportion varies across nationalities and may be influenced by the routes taken when travelling to the UK. For example, more dangerous routes (such as crossing the Channel in a small boat) see fewer women and children than other routes (such as travelling to the UK on a visa before claiming asylum).
In the year ending March 2025, 3% of asylum claims (3,707) were from unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). Three-quarters (76%) of these were aged 16 or 17 years. The number of UASC claims in the year ending March 2025 was 26% less than in the previous year, partly due to fewer claims from Afghan UASCs, which were down 46% compared to the year ending March 2024 when Afghanistan was the top UASC nationality. Sudan was the top nationality in the latest year.
A small percentage of asylum claims, (2% in 2023), involve individuals seeking protection due to their sexual orientation. For more details on this group see the report on ‘Asylum claims on the basis of sexual orientation’.
3. How does the UK compare with the EU+?
The EU+ refers to the 27 countries in the EU, 3 additional countries who are members of the European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland, and Montenegro. The latest available comparative data for the EU+ relates to 2024.
In 2024, there were 1.03 million people claiming asylum in the EU+, 12% less than in the previous year (and compared to an 18% increase in the UK).
The UK received a tenth of all asylum claims in the UK and EU+ in 2024.
Compared with other European countries, the UK received the fifth largest number of asylum seekers in 2024 (108,138) and the seventeenth largest intake when measured ‘per head of population’.
Table 2: The number of people claiming asylum to the UK and the top 4 countries in the EU+, 2024
| Country of claim | Total number of people claiming (proportion of total claims in the EU+ and UK) | Top nationality claiming asylum (percentage of total for that country) |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 250,545 (22%) |
Syrians (32%) |
| Spain | 166,145 (15%) |
Venezuelans (40%) |
| Italy | 158,610 (14%) |
Bangladeshis (21%) |
| France | 157,850 (14%) |
Ukrainians (9%) |
| United Kingdom | 108,138 (9%) |
Pakistanis (10%) |
Source: Eurostat Asylum statistics and Asylum claims and initial decisions – Asy_D01
The number and demographic profile of people claiming asylum varies across Europe with some nationalities claiming more in certain countries. This may be linked to factors including language, existing diasporas in these countries, the routes taken to reach them and the likelihood of being granted refugee permission.
Figure 3: The number of people claiming asylum in the UK and the top 4 countries in the EU+, year ending December 2020 to year ending December 20241, 2
Source: Eurostat Asylum statistics and Asylum claims and initial decisions – Asy_D01
Notes:
- Top 4 countries in the EU+ receiving asylum claimants in 2024.
- Includes main applicants and dependants.
4. Data tables and further links
Data referred to here can be found in the following tables:
Further links:
- Statistics on asylum outcomes, year ending March 2025
- Statistics on the UK asylum system, year ending March 2025
- Irregular migration to the UK statistics, year ending March 2025
- Migration transparency data
- Migrant journey: 2024 report
- Eurostat asylum statistics
- Asylum claims on the basis of sexual orientation, 2023
- Safe and legal (humanitarian) routes to the UK, year ending March 2025
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