Migration Statistics Quarterly Report

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released its latest quarterly report on UK Migration, which shows that net long-term migration to the UK was estimated to be 298,000 in the year ending September 2014.

According to the ONS, this was a statistically significant increase from 210,000 in the previous 12 months, but it is apparently below the peak of 320,000 that was reached in the year ending June 2005.

The quarterly report also shows that in the year ending September 2014:

• 624,000 people immigrated to the UK, which is a statistically significant increase from 530,000 in the previous 12 months.
• An estimated 327,000 people emigrated from the UK, and overall emigration levels have been relatively stable since 2010.
• 271,000 people immigrated for work, a statistically significant increase of 54,000 compared with a year earlier. This continues the rise that has been ongoing since the year ending June 2012. The increase over the past year applied to both non-EU and EU (non-British) citizens, as well as British citizens. However, only the increase for non-EU citizens was statistically significant.
• Work-related visas granted (main applicants) rose 8,833 (or 8%) to 115,680, largely reflecting a 6,142 (or 14%) increase for skilled work.
• Immigration for study increased from 175,000 to 192,000. Over the same period, visa applications to study at a UK university (main applicants) rose 2% to 171,065.
• The number of immigrants arriving to accompany or join others showed a statistically significant increase, from 66,000 to 90,000.
• There were 24,914 asylum applications (main applicants) in 2014, an increase of 6% compared with 23,584 in 2013, but low relative to the peak of 84,132 in 2002. The largest number of asylum applications in 2014 came from Eritrea (3,239), Pakistan (2,711), Syria (2,081) and Iran (2,011).

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

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