FOI REF: FOI/2022/4696
You asked
Please provide information on the number of German nationals who have registered to live in Scotland over the past 2 years.
Would also be keen to obtain the same information for German Nationals who have registered to live across the UK over the past 2 years.
Can you also confirm how many registered German Nationals have left Scotland and the UK in the past 2 years?
We said
Thank you for enquiry.
The closest information that ONS has regarding the number of German nationals resident in the UK (including Scotland) is published in the Population and Country of Birth and Nationality datasets. The latest published data available is for the year ending June 2021.
Table 2.3 includes an estimate and confidence intervals for the number of German nationals in the UK by sex. An estimate for Scotland is available in Table C in Population of the UK by country of birth and nationality: individual country data (Discontinued after June 2021) - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk).
The latest published data available is for the year ending June 2021 and more details are available in UK population by country of birth and nationality, year ending June 2021.
For the year ending June 2021 it is estimated that there were 135,000 German nationals (+/- 20,000) resident in the UK.
For the year ending June 2021 it is estimated that there were 15,000 German nationals (+/- 6,000) resident in Scotland.
ONS is currently transforming our population and migration estimates methodology. Our current stage of development within our new methods only produces immigration and emigration flow data by the broad nationality groupings of British, EU and non-EU, as well as by broad groupings for the reason for migration. At the present time we are not able to produce migration flow estimates for particular nationalities. Our latest set of estimates was published on the 24 November and can be accessed here: Long term international migration provisional, year ending June 2022.
Unfortunately, we do not hold an estimate of the number of German nationals living in the UK in 2022. This is because the method used to produce these estimates has been discontinued. The following link explain why this has occurred: Statement on population of the UK by country of birth and nationality series - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk).
In summary the series has been discontinued because:
- Higher quality estimates are now available from the Census: On 2 November 2022, the first migration statistics from the Census 2021 were published. These are our best estimate of the population of England and Wales by country of birth and passports held.
- Issues with the data used to weight the survey data underpinning the "Population by country of birth and nationality estimates": Administrative data from HMRC's Migrant Worker Scan (MWS) linked to Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, recently used to weight the non-UK born population in the Annual Population Survey (APS), only provides information to June 2021 due to an underlying data issue with the MWS. Therefore, population growth for non-UK-born and non-British nationals from the APS beyond June 2021 will not represent real changes until the data issue with the MWS is fixed.
Alternative methods to produce population estimates by nationality are being developed but are not yet available.We are transforming the way we produce population and migration statistics to make best use of all available data. The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is also undergoing a transformation to make further improvements to labour market statistics to improve quality, granularity and timeliness.
If you are interested in the number of German nationals who have been granted pre-settlement or settlement status through the EU Settlement Scheme, then the Home Office would be best placed to provide this information. National Records Scotland may also be able to help you with the estimate for German nationals living in Scotland.
When accessing any of our files please read the 'notes, terms and conditions' contained within them.
If you need anything further, please do not hesitate to contact us pop.info@ons.gov.uk.