There are around 67 million people living in the UK.
6 million people who live in the UK are foreign nationals; they are citizens of another nation. They make up 9.2% of the UK population.
Did you know? Manchester City Football Club Manager Pep Guardiola is a Spanish citizen, but he lives in central Manchester.
10 million people who live in the UK were born overseas. They are 14.4% of the UK population.
3.9 million of these people are British nationals, either because they were born to British parents or because they became British citizens later in life.
Did you know? British tennis player and US Open winner Emma Raducanu was born in Canada to a Romanian father and a Chinese mother; she came to the UK when she was two years of age.
People can belong to both categories. Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is one of the 6 million foreign nationals living in the UK and one of the 10 million people who were born overseas.
In 2019, there were138,000 babies born in England and Wales to parents who were both born outside of the UK. Some of these babies became British citizens automatically at birth; others may be able to become British later.
Did you know? British actor Dev Patel was born in the UK. His parents were born in Kenya, and moved to the UK when they were teenagers.
Hundreds of thousands of international students take degree courses at British universities every year.
There were 557,000 international students in the UK during the 2019 to 2020 academic year.
There is evidence that most international students don’t stay in the UK long-term. *
Did you know? Chelsea Clinton – the daughter of former US president Bill Clinton – did her Master’s degree at Oxford University.
Of the 32 million people who were in employment in the UK during April to June 2021, 4 million of them were foreign nationals.
Some migrants may temporarily work in the UK for just a few months (perhaps fruit picking); others stay and work here long-term for years, or even decades.
Did you know? Italian choreographer Bruno Tonioli lives in Hollywood most of the time, but comes to the UK when he is working on the TV show Strictly Come Dancing.
In 2020, there were 132,000 refugees living in the UK. In 2021, there were 86,000 asylum seekers living here (people awaiting an outcome of their application for refugee status).*
Around 27,000 vulnerable refugees were resettled in the UK between 2014 and 2021. These were mostly escaping the civil war.**
Did you know? Pop singer Rita Ora was a refugee. Her family came to the UK to escape the war in Kosovo when she was a baby.
Most people who cross borders are not migrants. The UK receives large numbers of tourists and business people each year who are just visiting and are not moving to the UK.
The large volume of visitors makes counting migrants crossing the border a lot more difficult.
In 2020, during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, only 11.1 million visits to the UK were made by people living overseas, whereas the previous year saw 40.9 million visits.
Did you know? In Summer 2012, hundreds of thousands of spectators from around the world visited London to attend the Olympic Games.