National statistics

National Insurance numbers allocated to adult overseas nationals to December 2022

Published 23 February 2023

This summary contains statistics on National Insurance numbers (NINos) allocated to adult non-UK overseas nationals, covering the period from January 2002 to December 2022.

These Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) statistics show a count, by individual nationality, of the number of NINos registered to adult non-UK nationals, irrespective of the length of stay in the UK. The statistics are not a count of quarterly or annual migration or the number of adult nationals currently residing in the UK. The statistics only show the nationality of the individual at the point of registration.

The narrative in this bulletin focuses on numbers of registrations over annual periods of time rather than quarterly. The benefit of this is that it allows us to focus on trends over longer periods of time, plus quarterly numbers can often be influenced by seasonal affects and various changes to policy. Both quarterly and annual numbers are available via Stat-Xplore.

Reinstatement of Statistics and period covered

This quarterly statistical series was previously suspended, since the November 2021 release, due to an underlying data issue which affected the provision of the statistical data extract that underpins this National Statistics publication. The issue has now been resolved and the statistical data quality assured and deemed fit for purpose.

This latest release includes a complete historic set of statistics from 2002 to December 2022, covering the period when the statistics were suspended.

Information on resolution of data issue

The Migrant Workers Scan (MWS) is a data extract which underpins the NINo Statistics publication, and it is sourced from the HMRC National Insurance and PAYE Service (NPS). Due to the underlying data issue, which temporarily caused a problem with the sourcing of this data for statistical purposes the publication was suspended until the issue was resolved. Following a system fix and the quality assurance of the data it has now been determined that it is of sufficient quality to publish.

Due to the nature of the fix, the nationality of those registering could not be obtained from MWS between 1st July 2021 to 16thAugust 2022, which resulted in using the DWP Customer Information System (CIS) to plug the gap. While the registration data from CIS is robust it doesn’t capture the same detailed information that is available from the HMRC sourced data. consequently, there are a small proportion of registrations where the Nationality is not obtainable for the period between July 2021 to August 2022, which has resulted in an increase in the ‘unknown’ Nationality category for registrations between 1st July 2021 to 16th August 2022. For more information, please see background information and methodology note

Statistical Trends

When observing statistical trends in this release it is helpful to understand the context of world events during the period covered by the statistics. Changing make-up of constituent nation states within the EU, with nations joining the EU, and the UK’s EU exit, as well as global conflicts, impacts of the pandemic and subsequent changes to the travel rules as a result of government migration policies and COVID-19 have all had an impact on the trends seen in the time series.

During COVID-19 there were operational impacts that affected how EU and Non-EU people could register for a NINo, with registration services being suspended and heavily disrupted between March 2020 and June 2021. Therefore, NINos registered after June 2021 will be a combination of applications at that time and those who could not register while services were suspended. This may have inflated figures for year ending (YE) September 2022. For more information see background information and methodology note.

The MWS data extract specification has been improved from July 2021 and now includes everyone over State Pension age from overseas who registers for a NINo. Although these numbers are small caution should be taken when observing historic trends as prior to July 2021 the MWS did not capture everyone over State Pension Age. See the see background information and methodology note for more information.

1. Main stories

• For the year ending (YE) December 2022 there were 1.1 million NINo registrations from non-UK overseas nationals. This compares to 600,000 for the YE December 2021, and is the highest number of registrations since the published figures began in 2002

• The number of registrations for the YE December 2022 (1.1 million) is higher than pre Covid-19 numbers, when there were 770,000 registrations for the YE December 2019, and 630,000 for the YE December 2018

• The majority of registrations for the YE December 2022 are from non-EU nationals, 890,000 compared with 150,000 registrations from EU nationals

• For the YE December 2022 the nationality with the highest number of registrations from Non-EU Nationals was India at 260,000, followed by Ukraine with 100,000 registrations

• For the YE December 2022 the nationality with the highest number of registrations from EU nationalities was Romania (36,000)

2. What you need to know

This summary contains statistics on NINos allocated to non-UK adult overseas nationals on the date the NINo was registered, covering the period from January 2002 to December 2022.

The two main methods of applying for a NINo are:

• directly to DWP via the Apply for a National Insurance number (AfN) service

• via the Home Office when an application for a visa is made

AfN is a digital NINo application service where users can apply for a NINo on-line, the service is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For more information on how these processes work see background information and methodology note.

Impact of COVID-19

It is important to acknowledge that during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, NINo operations services were paused for the majority of applicants from mid-March 2020.

From March 2020 to June 2021, the NINo service to EU nationals was more heavily disrupted than for non-EU nationals, due to the closure of face-to-face services which at the time (prior to the end of the transition period, 31 December 2020) required EU nationals to attend an evidence of identity interview prior to a NINo being allocated. Therefore, caution must be taken when using EU figures for this period.

The majority of non-EU nationals were able to access the NINo service via a postal process as they would have had their identity verified by another government departments, for example through the Home Office visa process. The postal process was reinstated on 1 June 2020, after being suspended in March 2020.

EU groupings used within migration statistics

The following EU groupings are used in the statistics:

• EU14 (these are the original EU members: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden)

• EU8 (these joined the EU in 2004: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia)

• EU2 (these joined the EU in 2007: Romania & Bulgaria)

• EU Other (Croatia, Cyprus, and Malta)

For reporting purposes, other European nationalities not in the EU are labelled ‘other Europe’ and are classified as non-EU. This includes countries such as Ukraine. The full list of country groupings can be found in the data tables ‘World Areas’ sheet.

3. How many people are registering?

Year end (YE) NINo registration numbers for EU and Non-EU Nationals: YE December 2002 to YE December 2022

Source: Stat-Xplore

Note: For more information on graph labels, please see background information and methodology note. There is a small proportion of registrations where the Nationality is ‘unknown’ during the period 1st July 2021 to 16th August 2022. See background information and methodology note for more detail.

From 2002 Non-UK overseas NINo registrations fluctuated, but gradually increased to 920,000 registrations at year end (YE) June 2015. Following this peak, numbers gradually declined to 760,000 in March 2020 before falling to a record low at YE March 2021 with 230,000 registrations.

The decrease in registrations since March 2020 was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which introduced increased travel restrictions and the suspension of processing new NINo applications on 8 March 2020.

Since then, numbers have risen and for YE December 2022 there were the highest number of NINos registered to adult overseas nationals annually, with 1.1 million NINos registered. This compares to 600,000 registrations the previous YE December 2021 and 320,000 for YE December 2020.

The majority of registrations for YE December 2022 were to non-EU nationals at 890,000 (85%) compared to 150,000 (14%) to EU nationals. The remaining 16,000 (<2%) were unknown nationalities. The majority of registrations for YE December 2021 were also to non-EU nationals at 390,000 (65%) compared with 180,000 (31%) EU nationals, with 5% unknown.

This trend was similar for the previous YE December 2020 with 210,000 (64%) to non-EU nationals, compared to 120,000 (36%) EU Nationals. It is important to note the differing restrictions to NINo applications for EU and non-EU nationals during the Covid-19 pandemic. Registrations from Non-EU nationals were less severely impacted, as postal applications were reinstated from late April to May 2020, whereas EU nationals, could not apply until the latter of 2020, as a result of Covid-19 restrictions disrupting face-to-face services.

Prior to this, since YE September 2005, NINo registrations from EU Nationalities were always in the majority apart from a short period YE 2010 when non-EU Nationalities had slightly more registrations than EU.

A number of things may have contributed to these changing trends, for example the transition of the UK leaving the EU and EU nationals being subject to visa restrictions may have impacted numbers of EU nationals registering. In addition, the UK providing ongoing support for Ukrainian nationals and others requiring protection may have contributed to the increase of registrations from non-EU nationals.

It should also be noted that new NINo applications made for employment purposes were not accepted between 18 March 2020 and 1 June 2020. Those applications already received and new applications made for benefit purposes were processed to completion as usual. The service to non-EU nationals opened from 1 June 2020, whereas the service to EU nationals did not commence until 7 December 2020 which may also account for the differing trends.

4. Where in the world are people registering from?

Percentage of NINo registrations by EU/non-EU nationality group: Year end (YE) December 2018 to December 2022

Source: Stat-Xplore

Note: There is a small proportion of registrations where the Nationality is ‘unknown’ during the period 1 July 2021 to 16 August 2022. See background information and methodology note for more detail.

The proportion of non-EU NINo registrations has been steadily increasing over recent years. For YE December 2022 85% of NINos registered to overseas nationals were to non-EU nationals, an increase of 20 percentage points on YE December 2021 and 51 percentage points greater than YE December 2018.

The proportion of NINo registrations from EU nationals (from all EU subgroups) has fallen in recent years to 14% for YE December 2022, a fall of 17 percentage points since YE December 2021 and 51 percentage points since December 2018.

The steady fall of EU NINo registrations since YE December 2018 is evident in all EU groups with EU2 having the greatest percentage point fall by 21 percentage points, EU14 falling by 18 percentage points and EU8 by 12 percentage points.

There is a small proportion with an unknown Nationality for later years, see background information and methodology note for more information.

5. EU NINo Registrations

NINo registration numbers by EU group: YE December 2002 to YE December 2022

Source: Stat-Xplore.

Note: For more information on graph labels, please see background information and methodology note.

Since 2002 registrations from EU14 nationalities gradually increased from June 2003 until they peaked at 260,000 in YE June 2015 and declined to 160,000 in YE December 2018 following the EU Exit referendum in June 2016. Numbers then increased slightly from YE December 2018 until YE December 2019 but then declined rapidly until YE March 2021 (35,000), impacted by COVID restrictions. Since then, registrations from EU14 nationalities increased slightly to 100,000 at YE December 2021 but have since fallen to 81,000 at YE December 2022. The EU14 group has had the largest number of registrations of all the EU groups since YE March 2019.

Registrations from EU8 nationalities drove the sharp rise in EU NINo registrations in 2004, when countries from the EU8 joined the EU. EU8 registrations peaked for the YE September 2007 to 340,000 registrations, after which numbers declined until YE March 2010 to 150,000. After a period of volatility EU8 registrations have again generally declined since the EU Exit referendum in 2016, to 8,500 registrations for YE March 2021, also impacted by COVID-19. Since then, numbers have increased slightly to 23,000 for YE December 2021, but have since fallen to 15,000 registrations for YE December 2022.

Registrations from EU2 nationals were relatively low until the removal of restrictions on work for EU2 citizens drove the sharp rise in EU registrations in 2014. Some of this reflected individuals who were residing in the UK prior to 2014 and would only have been able to register for a NINo after that date (see arrival to registration analysis on EU2 nationals for more about this). EU2 registrations peaked in the YE December 2016, with 230,000 registrations and declined until YE March 2019 (170,000). Registrations then increased again slightly until YE September 2019 (180,000), at which point they then declined, affected by COVID-19 restrictions, until YE March 2021 (28,000). Recently registrations have increased slightly to 48,000 for YE December 2022.

NINo registrations from EU ‘other’ have remained consistently low throughout the timeseries and there were only 2,500 registrations for YE December 2022.

Percentage of EU Registrations by EU group: Year Ending (YE) December 2018 to December 2022

Source: Stat-Xplore

In general, although numbers of EU NINo registrations have fallen across all EU groups in the last five years (420,000 for YE December 2018 to 150,000 for YE December 2022), affected by the EU Exit and COVID restrictions, the proportions of those registering by each EU group has changed over this period of time:

Most registrations from EU nationals for YE December 2022 were from nationalities in the EU14 subgroup (56%). The proportion of all EU registrations made up by EU14 registrations has increased over the last 5 years with a rise of 17 percentage points since YE December 2018. However, the overall number of nationals registering from EU14 nations has almost halved in this period, from 160,000 for YE December 2018 to 81,000 for YE December 2022,

Registrations from nationalities in the EU2 group have the second highest proportion of registrations of all the EU groups for YE December 2022 (33%), however this is a decrease in proportion by 7 percentage points since YE December 2018.

Registrations from EU8 account for 10% of EU registrations for YE December 2022. The registrations in this group have decreased by 10 percentage points since YE December 2018.

Registrations from EU ‘other’ remain very low and account for only 2% of EU registrations for YE December 2022.

Top Five EU Nationalities by Number of Registrations for Year End (YE) December 2021 and YE December 2022

Source: Stat-Xplore

Figures for the top five EU nationalities for YE December 2022 show the highest number of registrations are from Romania (36,000), a fall of 6000 since a year earlier when the number of registrations was 42,000 for YE December 2021.

Registrations from those with an Irish nationality had the second highest number of registrations (14,000) for YE December 2022 and was the only nation from the EU top five to show an increase in the number of registrations since the previous year to date (YE December 2021), where it had the seventh highest number of EU registrations (11,000).

For YE December 2022 NINo registrations from Italian nationals were the third highest at 12,000. For YE December 2021 Italian nationals had the second highest number of registrations at 22,000.

For YE December 2022 those with a Spanish nationality had fourth highest number of registrations (12,000) followed by Bulgaria (12,000).

Timeseries showing number of NINo registrations for the top five nationalities for Year ending (YE) December 2022. (YE December 2018 to YE December 2022)

Source: Stat-Xplore

Figures for the top five EU Nationalities since 2018 show that despite a fall in numbers from 130,000 in YE December 2018 to 36,000 for YE December 2022, Romania remained the EU nationality with the highest number of NINo registrations for YE December 2022.

Irish nationals, the second highest group of registrations for YE December 2022 (14,000) - is the only nationality to show an increase in registrations since YE December 2018, increasing from 10,000 at YE December 2018.

Italian nationals had the third highest numbers of EU registrations for YE December 2022 at 12,000, falling from 43,000 at YE December 2018.

Spanish registrations were the fourth highest nationality for YE December 2022 at 12,000, decreasing from 31,000 at YE December 2018.

Bulgarian registrations were the fifth highest at YE December 2022 at 12,000, a fall from 33,000 at YE December 2018.

6. Non-EU registrations

It is important to note that registrations from non-EU nationals have been less severely impacted by disruptions to NINo services than registrations from EU nationals. The postal process for NINo applicants with a valid work visa, issued prior to their arrival in the UK, was suspended in March 2020.

For Home Office postal applications (non-EU nationals) processing of applications was reinstated in late April and May 2020, whereas the processing of all other applications (non-EU and EU nationals) including 53,000 parked applications awaiting a decision prior to suspension, were not reinstated until June 2020.

Further, Apply for a NINo was introduced in the latter of 2020, but made available only for non-EU nationals who had received an information via telephone. EU nationals could not access this service until December 2020, as a result of Covid-19 restrictions disrupting face to face services, and restrictions in the number of applicants were in place until April 2021.

NINo registration number by non-EU group: Year end (YE) December 2002 to YE December 2022

Source: Stat-Xplore

Note: For more information on graph labels, please see background information and methodology note.

Registrations from all non-EU nationalities were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with a decrease to 160,000 for YE March 2021. Since then, numbers of registrations across all non-EU groups have increased steadily to 890,000 for YE December 2022.

Since 2002 NINo registrations from Asian nationals have always been the highest of all the non-EU groups, peaking at YE December 2010 with 220,000, but then declined until YE June 2014 to 75,000. Registrations then remained stable until YE December 2018 before gradually increasing to 190,000 at YE March 2020. Since then, registrations fell to 100,000 for YE March 2021, impacted by COVID-19, but have since increased to 520,000 for YE December 2022.

Registrations from African nationals generally decreased after peaking in YE March 2006 with 74,000 registrations, until the YE June 2014 when they fell to 27,000. Registrations from Africa were then stable from YE December 2015 until they started to increase from YE December 2018 to reach 56,000 in YE March 2020 before falling to 31,000 at YE March 2021. Numbers of registrations have since risen to 180,000 at YE December 2022.

Registrations from the Americas have always been relatively low and stable but after a very gradual increase for YE March 2009 to 36,000 registrations, numbers then gradually fell to 20,000 for YE June 2014. Numbers then remained relatively stable but gradually increased to 35,000 for YE September 2019, before falling to 14,000 in YE March 2021, impacted by COVID-19. Since then, numbers of registrations have risen to 44,000 at YE December 2022.

Similarly, registrations from Oceania have always remained low and peaked in YE September 2007 at 35,000. Since then, numbers have remained fairly stable, but gradually fell to 2,900 in YE June 2021, impacted in the latter year by COVID-19. Since then, registrations have risen slightly to 12,000 in YE December 2022.

Registrations from European Nationalities not a part of the EU (Other Europe), have remained relatively low and stable until YE March 2018 when, for the first time, they had more registrations than Oceania at 17,000 compared with 16,000 for Oceania. Registrations then increased to 31,000 in YE March 2020, before falling to 12,000 in YE March 2021. Registrations have since increased steeply and for YE December 2022 there were 140,000 registrations. This is mostly due to increased registrations from Ukrainian nationals.

It should be noted that the noticeable increase in registrations from non-EU nationals after September 2018 until the beginning of 2020, is mostly due to registration for a NINo of adult dependants as part of certain visa approvals. See background information and methodology note for more information.

Percentage of Non-EU registrations by non-EU group: Year Ending (YE) December 2018 to YE December 2022

Source: Stat-Xplore

In general, numbers of registrations from non-EU Nationalities have increased over the last five years to 890,000 registrations for YE December 2022 from 210,000 for YE December 2018. Comparison of the subgroups for non-EU Nationalities shows there has only been slight changes in the proportions for each of the non-EU subgroups over the last five years.

Registrations by Asian nationals remain the non-EU group with the largest proportion of NINo registrations for YE December 2022 (58%), an increase of 3 percentage points since YE December 2018.

African nationals have the next highest proportion at 20% YE December 2022. An increase of 3 percentage points since YE December 2018.

Proportions have steadily increased since YE December 2018 (9%) for ‘other Europe’ and this group now has the third highest percentage of registrations for YE December 2022 at 16%.

Americas registrations are showing the fourth highest group with only 5% for YE December 2022. There has been a steady fall in proportion since YE December 2018 when the percentage of registrations was 12%.

There has also been a steady fall of registrations for Oceania, the fifth highest group, from 7% for YE December 2018. This group has the lowest proportion of NINos registered for all non-EU groups in YE December 2022 at only 1%.

Top Five non-EU nationalities registrations for year ending (YE) December 2021 and YE December 2022

Source: Stat-Xplore

Figures for the top five non-EU nationalities for YE December 2022 show the nationality with the highest number of NINo registrations was India at 260,000, increasing from 120,000 registrations for YE December 2021

Ukrainian registrations were the second highest at 100,000 for YE December 2022, increasing from 7,700 for YE December 2021 when they were thirteenth highest.

The third highest NINo registrations for YE December 2022 were from Nigerian nationals with 100,000, a rise from 30,000 for YE December 2021

Pakistan had the fourth highest number of non-EU registrations for YE December 2022 (54,000), an increase from 30,000 for YE December 2021 (when they were the third highest).

The non-EU nationality with the fifth highest number of NINo registrations was China with 36,000 registrations, in comparison to 14,000 for YE December 2021, when they were also fifth highest.

It is worth noting that the chart above does not take into account registrations with an ‘unknown Nationality’ For the period 1st July 2021 to 22nd August 2022 these unknowns are inflated due to data being obtained from CIS. Analysis of a sample of DWP operational information NINo applications indicated that the majority of these registrations over this period are likely to be from Hong Kong or British Nationals overseas passports. See background information and methodology note for more information.

Timeseries showing numbers of NINo registrations for top five non-EU Nationalities for YE December 2022 (covering from YE December 2018 to YE December 2022)

Source: Stat-Xplore

Figures for the top five non-EU Nationalities since 2018 show that for YE December 2022 India had the highest number of registrations at 260,000, increasing from 46,000 for YE December 2018.

Ukraine had the next highest number of registrations for YE December 2022 at 100,000, an increase from 1,600 for YE December 2018. Nigeria had the third highest number of registrations with 100,000 for YE December 2022, an increase from 9,500 for YE December 2018

Pakistan had the fourth highest number of registrations at 54,000 YE December 2022, an increase from 14,000 for YE December 2018. China had the lowest number of top five non-EU registrations for YE December 2022 at 36,000, an increase from 12,000 for YE December 2018.

7. Where in the UK are people registering?

Numbers of NINo registrations by region and non-EU/EU groups for the year ending (YE) December 2022

Region	non-EU	EU
London	260,000	53,000
South East	100,000	14,000
West Midlands	81,000	12,000
North West	75,000	11,000
East of England	66,000	11,000
Scotland	56,000	7,200
East Midlands	56,000	9,400
Yorkshire and the Humber	54,000	7,300
South West	44,000	5,800
Wales	24,000	2,100
North East	24,000	1,900
Northern Ireland	10,000	3,400
Overseas	28,000	7,000
Unknown	6,800	1,100

Source: Stat-Xplore

Note: Overseas indicates registrations which were obtained via Home Office Visa scheme prior to arrival in UK. Geography information is based on address given at time of NINo registration. There is a small proportion of registrations where the Nationality is ‘unknown’ during the period 1 July 2021 to 16 August 2022. See background information and methodology note for more detail.

In the YE December 2022, the number of registrations from non-EU nationals was greater than registrations from EU nationals (890,000 compared with 150,000) and this was reflected across all regions. It is important to acknowledge that registrations to non-EU nationals have been less severely impacted by disruptions to NINo services than registrations from EU nationals.

A high percentage (41%) of all known UK registrations for YE December 2022 resided in London or the South East regions at the time of NINo registration.

The region with the highest number of NINo registrations was London with 260,000 non-EU registrations and 53,000 EU registrations.

The South East region had the second highest number of registrations with 100,000 non-EU and 14,000 EU.

Top 10 Local Authorities by number of NINo registrations for the year ending (YE) December 2022

Local Authorities	Registrations
Birmingham	31,000
Newham	28,000
Manchester	21,000
Tower Hamlets	21,000
Brent	18,000
Coventry	17,000
Leicester	17,000
Ealing	17,000
Glasgow City	16,000
City of Edinburgh	16,000
Overseas	35,000
Unknown	7,900

Source: Stat-Xplore

Note: Overseas indicates registrations which were obtained via Home Office Visa scheme prior to arrival in the UK. Geography information is based on address given at time of NINo registration. There is a small proportion of registrations where the Nationality is ‘unknown’ during the period 1st July 2021 to 16th August 2022. See background information and methodology note for more detail.

The local authority with the highest number of registrations for YE December 2022 was Birmingham with 31,000. Newham had the second highest registrations with 28,000 then Manchester with 21,000.

Note: The statistical method to assign missing geographies has been improved. In previous publications when the geographical location of a person was not recorded at the point of NINo registration, then for the purposes of this release a random allocation method was used to assign a geography. This process has now been improved and instead of using a random allocation method the geography is now shown as ‘unknown’ or ‘abroad’ to better reflect the location of the customer at the time of registration. The full historic back-series has been revised in Stat-Xplore and in this bulletin. For more information about the previous and current methodology see background information and methodology note.

8. About these statistics

Re-designation of National Statistics status

The UK Statistics Authority re-designated these statistics as National Statistics, in November 2020. For more information see the background information note.

EU exit

This statistical release covers the period until 31 December 2022. The Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Act 2020 ended free movement between the EU and the UK on 31 December 2020 and the Future Relationship treaty came into force, launching the new Points Based Immigration System. Read the background information note for further information on the EU Exit.

What can you use these figures for?

The statistics provide:

• a 100% count of non-UK overseas nationals registered for a NINo

• Stat-Xplore allows users to tabulate NINo registrations for each quarter and Year End Nino registrations (for each quarter)

• the focus of this publication is on NINo registrations for Year End (YE)

• the nationality of non-UK overseas nationals at the time of registering

• the geographical location of the non-UK overseas nationals at the time of registering

What you cannot use these figures for

The statistics cannot be used as a count of:

• quarterly or annual migration to the UK

• the number of non-UK overseas nationals who have started work or are currently in work

• the number of non-UK overseas nationals who are currently in the UK

The statistics show the number of people registered for a NINo in order to work or to claim benefits and tax credits and are one of a number of supplementary measures produced by government of in-migration to the UK.

Although quarterly registration figures are provided in the accompanying data tables, care should be taken when interpreting quarterly changes as they might reflect changes in operational activity. Annual year-on-year changes are more reliable to reflect longer-term trends.

The statistics are published as part of the scheduled timetable for the release of cross-government migration statistics.

Read the background information and methodology note for further information, including detail on uses and limitations of the series.

Comparisons with other sources of migration

NINo statistics are not a direct measure of long-term migration and therefore are not directly comparable with Office for National Statistics (ONS) long-term estimates of immigration.

On 7 March 2016, the ONS published an information note explaining the reasons why long-term international immigration figures from the International Passenger Survey (IPS) could differ from the number of NINo registrations.

This was followed by an analytical paper presenting analysis that has been undertaken across government to help understand why the two series are showing different trends, with focus on EU migration.

Transformation of migration statistics

Following the suspension of the IPS as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ONS is in the process of developing international migration statistics based on alternative administrative data sources. The first iteration of these new Admin-Based Migration Estimates (ABMEs) were published on 16 April 2021. More information on the progress made and timelines can be found in “Population and migration statistics system transformation – recent updates”.

Rounding policy

Numbers in this bulletin have been rounded as detailed in the background information and methodology note. Percentage changes are calculated prior to rounding and then are rounded to the nearest whole number. As all figures within this bulletin have been rounded, therefore they may not sum to totals.

Due to rounding and the inclusion of unknown nationalities in the total, the total figure could differ from the sum of EU and non-EU.

World Areas

For reporting purposes, countries have been grouped into ‘world areas’ based primarily on geographical location. Countries are grouped according to current world area status for the entire back series.

World Area	Sub-Group
European Union (EU)	European Union EU14 (original EU members), European Union EU8 (joined EU in 2004), European Union EU2 (joined EU in 2007), European Union Other
Non-European Union (Other Europe)	Other Europe
Asia	Middle East and Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, South East Asia
Africa	Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa
Americas	North America, Central and South America
Oceania	Oceania

A detailed nationality breakdown for each world area is available in the supplementary data tables accompanying this release.

Release schedule

The statistics are published quarterly in February, May, August, and November and are sourced from data originally collected via Migrant Workers Scan (MWS) administrative system.

Next release: May 2023

Where to find out more

Read previous releases of these statistics.

Read further information for this series, including detail on data sources, uses, quality and limitations of the series.

Full statistics on NINo allocations to adult overseas nationals entering the UK are available from Stat-Xplore.

Read about the NINo application process.

9. User engagement

Enquires and feedback

DWP would like to hear your views on our statistical publications. If you use any of our statistics publications, we would be interested in hearing what you use them for and how well they meet your requirements: Send your comments by email to: cbm.stats@dwp.gov.uk

Press enquiries should be directed to the DWP Press Office, telephone: 0203 267 5144.

Producer: Kate Walker

Lead Statistician: Owen Williams

Enquiries about these statistics should be directed by email to: cbm.stats@dwp.gov.uk

ISBN: 978-1-78659-493-8