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The following charts are comprised of two sources:
Long-term international migration, provisional: year ending December 2025, which covers the year ending June 2012 to year ending December 2025.
Long-term international migration 2.00, citizenship, UK, which covers 1964 to 2011 for British nationals and 1975 to 2011 for EU and non-EU nationals.
Both sources provided immigration, emigration and net migration breakdowns by nationality.
The ONS uses the United Nations (UN) definition of a long-term international migrant as some who moves to a country for 12 months (a year) or more.
The exact wording in the latest ONS release is as follows:
Estimates are based on the UN definition of an international migrant. That is, a person who moves to a country other than that of his or her usual residence for a period of at least a year (12 months), so that the country of destination effectively becomes his or her new country of usual residence.
It’s also important to understand the difference between immigration, emigration and net migration.
Immigration refers to those who are entering the country.
Emigration refers to those who are leaving the country.
Net migration is the difference between those entering and leaving the country.
For example, if, over a given period, 750,000 people were to enter the UK (immigrate) and 500,000 people left the UK (emigrate), then your net figure (net migration) would be 250,000.
With this out the way, it’s possible to map immigration, emigration and net migration of different groups, which can broadly be fit into the following categories.
All nationalities
British nationals
European Union (EU) nationals
Non-EU nationals
For detailed explanations of how these nationalities are defined over their coverage periods, see the notes and explanations in each ONS release.
From 2012, immigration releases cover a year end on a rolling 12-month basis ending in each quarter (March, June, September and December) and are released twice yearly by the ONS. Usually, one in May that covers September and December of the previous year, then one in November that covers March and June of that same year.
Most media outlets and Government departments only reference the year end June and year end December figures, though year end March and year end September figures can be referenced by some outlets, which can lead to confusion if not understood or made clear.
Please do note, these datasets span 50-61 years. The ONS has updated and refined their methodology, including backdated revisions (as we recently saw in November 2025) and these are only estimates. However, absent any other data or going back in time and having a proper entry and exit system where we sign people in and out the country, this is the best we’ve got.
There is Bank of England data on immigration, emigration and net migration going back to 1853 / 1855, however this offers no breakdown of the nationalities entering or leaving, so I haven’t included it.
All nationalities (1964 to December 2025)
The following three charts cover immigration, emigration and net migration of all nationalities from 1964 to December 2025. These will be the figures that are most widely used by the Government, Home Office, ONS, media, journalists and other outlets when discussing migration figures.
British nationals (1964 to December 2025)
The following three charts cover immigration, emigration and net migration of British nationals from 1964 to December 2025. Please see the definition section of both documents if you want to understand more about what constitutes a British national, as it has changed over time.
EU nationals (1975 to December 2025)
The following three charts cover immigration, emigration and net migration of EU nationals from 1975 to December 2025. Please see the definitions of both documents if you want to know more about what constitutes an EU national, as membership of the EU has changed over time and in recent releases, people from countries like Norway are counted as EU nationals.
Non-EU nationals (1975 to December 2025)
The following three charts cover immigration, emigration and net migration of non-EU nationals from 1975 to December 2025. Please see the definition section of both documents if you want to understand more about what constitutes a non-EU national.
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