International migration

Migration Statistics Quarterly Report: August 2018

What's in the bulletin?

• To fully understand migration, we need to consider all available data sources. On this basis, our best assessment is that around 270,000 more people came to the UK than left in the year ending March 2018, so long-term net migration has continued to add to the UK population.
• Net migration has fallen from the peak levels seen in 2015 and 2016 and has remained broadly stable since. Underlying this period of stability, long-term immigration and long-term emigration have remained broadly stable at around 610,000 and 340,000 respectively in the year ending March 2018.
• Although the estimates show an increase in long-term net migration over the latest year, this was due to an unusual decrease in the International Passenger Survey estimates for student immigration in 2016, that was not seen in other data sources, and which our quality work suggested was an anomaly. We therefore do not recommend that users make year-on-year comparisons over this period and instead look at the broader evidence and longer time series.