Long-term international migration, provisional: year ending December 2025
22nd May 2026
Long-term immigration is where an individual moves to the UK for 12 months or more. Long-term emigration is where an individual leaves the UK for 12 months or more. Long-term net migration is immigration minus emigration.
Long-term net migration
At 171,000, long-term international net migration for year ending (YE) December 2025 has nearly halved from YE December 2024 (updated to 331,000); this level was last seen when the new immigration system was introduced in early 2021, and the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic travel restrictions were still in place.
The number of non-EU+ nationals arriving for work-related reasons fell by 47% in 2025, which was the main reason for the continued fall in net migration; in the same period, overall emigration fell slightly.
Provisional net migration was 350,000 for non-EU+ nationals in YE December 2025, down from 511,000 a year earlier.
The provisional net migration of British nationals remained broadly stable, estimated at negative 136,000.
Net migration for EU+ nationals in YE December 2025 was negative 42,000, it has been negative since YE June 2022.
Long-term immigration
The provisional estimate for total long-term immigration YE December 2025 is 813,000, a decrease of 20% from the updated YE December 2024 estimate of 1,012,000; this continues a downward trend in our long-term immigration estimates from the peak at 1,469,000 in March 2023.
Most people immigrating into the UK in YE December 2025 were non-EU+ nationals, provisionally estimated at 627,000, a decline from 780,000 in YE December 2024.
When looking at the reasons for immigration of non-EU+ nationals in YE December 2025, 47% came for study-related reasons, 23% for work-related reasons, 14% were asylum applicants, and 7% and 6% were for family- and humanitarian-related reasons, respectively.
The immigration of EU+ and British nationals in the YE December 2025 was 76,000 and 110,000, falling slightly from 91,000 and 140,000, respectively, in the previous year.
Long-term emigration
The provisional estimate for total long-term emigration in the most recent period is 642,000.
Emigration has been increasing since 2022 but was down by 38,000 from the updated YE December 2024 estimate of 680,000; which was mainly because of a slower increase in non-EU+ emigration and larger decrease in EU+ emigration in the last 12 months.
In YE December 2025, 278,000 non-EU+ nationals left the UK; just over half of these originally arrived with study-related visas.
Emigration of EU+ nationals declined in YE December 2025 to 118,000, down by 24% from the updated YE December 2024 estimates of 155,000.
In YE December 2025, 246,000 British nationals left the UK, a slight decline of 4% from the updated YE December 2024 estimates of 257,000.
Read the full ONS report HERE