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How many people are granted asylum in the UK?

Published 21 May 2026

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-statistics-year-ending-march-2026/how-many-people-are-granted-asylum-in-the-uk

Back to ‘Immigration system statistics, year ending March 2026’ contents page

This release goes up to the year ending (YE) March 2026. The “year ending” period includes the 12 months up to and including the YE month. For example, YE March 2026 includes the 12 months between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026.

An asylum claim marks an individual’s entry into the UK asylum system. Following a claim, people may spend time in the system awaiting an initial decision and, where eligible, may receive accommodation or financial support. Outcomes on a claim may include a grant of protection or other leave, a refusal, or other outcomes such as a withdrawal or an administrative outcome, with some claimants able to appeal following a decision.

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) receiving outcomes on their asylum claims. The number of main applicants (excluding dependants) represents the total number of asylum cases being considered by the Home Office.

Statistics on other parts of the asylum system are available in other chapters of this report - ‘How many people claim asylum in the UK?’ and ‘How many people are in the UK asylum system?’. In addition, this release also includes a separate chapter on asylum seekers whose claimed age is doubted: ‘How many people have their age assessed?’.

1. How many people are granted protection at initial decision?

The data in this section relates to grants at initial decision following an asylum claim. Additional numbers of people receive a grant of protection following an appeal. Other people will be granted refugee status when they are brought to the UK under UNHCR resettlement schemes (reported in ’How many people come to the UK via safe and legal (humanitarian) routes?’).

The number of people granted protection in the YE March 2026 has remained broadly similar to the previous year.

In the YE March 2026, 48,581 people were granted refugee protection or other leave at initial decision, an increase of 5% on the previous year. Although this is lower than the peak of 67,678 in the YE March 2024, it remains higher than at any point prior to 2023.

The relatively high level of grants reflects the sustained increase in asylum claims and initial decisions in recent years. In the latest year, 128,300 people received an initial decision. This is 32% more than the previous year and more than four times the annual average in the decade to 2020.

Figure 1: Number of people granted or refused protection or other leave following an asylum claim in the UK, YE December 2002 to YE March 20261, 2

Source: Asylum claims and initial decisions - Asy_D02

Notes:

  1. Includes main applicants and dependants.
  2. Excludes withdrawals and administrative outcomes.

Figure 1 shows that the proportion of decisions resulting in a grant has fallen over the past year, as refusals have increased. In the YE March 2026, 79,719 people received a refusal, an increase of 57% compared with the previous year.

The quarterly changes in grants over the previous two years, shown in the figure, reflect the pausing of caseworking under the Illegal Migration Act and its subsequent restart in July 2024, after the Home Secretary laid a statutory instrument removing the retrospective application of the Act.

2. What proportion of asylum seekers are granted protection at initial decision?

The data in this section relates to the grant rate which is the proportion of initial decisions (main applicants only) which resulted in a grant of protection or other leave. The grant rate excludes withdrawals and administrative outcomes.

The grant rate at initial decision has decreased in the latest year and has now returned to a similar level to the period before 2020.

Figure 2: Asylum grant rate at initial decision, YE March 2002 to YE March 2026

Source: Asylum claims and initial decisions - Asy_D02

Figure 2 shows that the grant rate was 39% in YE March 2026. This was lower than the grant rate of 49% in YE March 2025, and substantially below the peak grant rate of 77% in the YE September 2022.

The grant rate can vary for a number of reasons, including the mix of nationalities claiming asylum, and the protection needs of those who claim asylum in the UK. It is also affected by operational resourcing and policy decisions, such as changes to the types of cases prioritised for decisions. The Home Office guidance on caseworking prioritisation is published on GOV.UK.

3. Who is granted protection at initial decision?

Grant rates vary widely across nationalities claiming asylum.

Figure 3: The number of asylum claimants receiving initial decisions in the UK, for the top 10 nationalities, and the grant rate at initial decision (%), YE March 20261, 2

Source: Asylum claims and initial decisions - Asy_D02

Notes:

  1. The figure shows the top 10 nationalities receiving initial decisions in the YE March 2026.
  2. The number of people receiving initial decisions includes main applicants and dependants. The grant rate includes main applicants only.

Among the top 10 nationalities receiving initial decisions, Sudan (93%) and Eritrea (87%) had the highest proportion of claims granted in the YE March 2026, as shown in Figure 3. Some nationalities have a lower grant rate, with Bangladesh (14%), Turkey (18%) and particularly India (1%) seeing a low proportion of claims being granted at initial decision.

The grant rate for Syrian nationals has decreased substantially, from 98% in the YE March 2025 to 9% in the latest year. This follows a pause in decision making, introduced after the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, and the restart of casework in July 2025.

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) received 2,328 grants of protection or other leave at initial decision in the YE March 2026. 58% of UASC claims were granted leave in the YE March 2026, higher than for non-UASC claims (39%).

Since 2018, the Home Office has published statistics on asylum cases where a person’s sexual orientation formed a part of the basis of their claim. In YE December 2023, 2,133 grants at initial decision (main applicants only) were made where sexual orientation was part of the claim. The grant rate for these claims in YE December 2023 was 62%, similar to the grant rate for non-LGB asylum claims in that period (67%). More information can be found in ‘Asylum claims on the basis of sexual orientation 2023’. Work is ongoing to produce updated data from 2023 onwards, which is not yet available due to the transition to a new caseworking system, and will be published in a future Immigration system statistics release.

4. How do latest outcomes compare to initial outcomes?

The outcome of an asylum claim may change following an appeal or a reconsideration. As more initial decisions are made and appeals are also completed, the number of grants and refusals relating to claims made in previous years will change. This is especially relevant for the most recent years, as ongoing appeals and reconsiderations mean the latest grant rate will change.

For claims between 2007 and 2020, the grant rate when based on the latest decision was, on average, 22 percentage points higher than when based on the initial decision.

Figure 4: Grant rates at initial and latest decision by year of claim, 2007 to 20231, 2, 3

Source: Outcome analysis of asylum claims - Asy_D04

Notes:

  1. Main applicants only.
  2. The grant rate is the proportion of decisions which resulted in a grant of protection or other leave. Excludes withdrawals and administrative outcomes.
  3. Data is based on the year of the asylum claim, and the grant rate at initial decision and latest decision are calculated from the outcomes as at the point of data extraction in April 2026.

Figure 4 shows that the grant rate at the latest outcome, following appeals and reconsiderations, was between 17 and 29 percentage points higher than the initial grant rate for each year of claim between 2007 and 2020.

5. How many people do not receive a substantive decision on their asylum claim?

A substantive decision on an asylum claim refers to a grant of permission to stay or refusal of the asylum claim, based on the merit of the claim itself. However, some claims are closed before a substantive decision is issued.

5.1 Withdrawals

If a claimant fails to follow the required processes, such as not attending interviews, the Home Office can withdraw their claim. This is known as an implicit withdrawal. Claims can also be explicitly withdrawn if the claimant tells the Home Office they no longer wish to proceed with their claim.

In the YE March 2026, 16,901 people had their asylum claims withdrawn, a 6% decrease compared to the previous year. Of these withdrawals in the latest year, 75% were implicit withdrawals.

5.2 Inadmissibility

Some asylum claims may be declared inadmissible, meaning the UK has decided not to consider the claim because it considers another country responsible for examining it. The inadmissibility provisions provide the grounds for treating an asylum claim as inadmissible to the UK asylum system. This includes if a person has an earlier presence in, or connection to, a safe third country.

Between January 2021 (when the inadmissibility rules were introduced) and March 2026, 40 people who were considered for inadmissibility were removed from the UK. These returns were made to European nations - Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

6. What happens after a refugee is granted asylum?

Analysis of HMRC-linked data shows that the employment rate among refugees aged 16 to 64, granted asylum between 2015 and 2023, levels off at around 48% after 2 years.

After being granted refugee status or another form of protection, individuals transition from asylum support into mainstream systems for housing, health, and education. Refugees are eligible to work and can access benefits including English language and employment support through national and local programmes.

Data on employment rate, working hours and earnings of refugees in England and Wales between 2015 and 2023 comes from the Refugee Integration Outcomes (RIO) project, published in November 2025.

A previous analysis from the RIO project used Census 2021 data for refugees in England and Wales between 2015 and 2021, providing information on the types of jobs refugees secured as well as their language proficiency and housing outcomes.

Data referred to here can be found in the following tables:

Further links:

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