Annual net migration to UK hit a record 606,000 in 2022

Non-EU nationals arriving for work, study and humanitarian reasons drive increase

Annual net migration to the United Kingdom reached a record high of 606,000 last year, official estimates showed yesterday, heaping pressure on British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who pledged to bring numbers down.

The increase was driven by non-EU nationals, including refugees under the British government’s Ukraine visa schemes and people migrating for work and education, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

“Numbers are too high, it’s as simple as that,” Sunak said following the release of the data. He pointed to reforms earlier this week, which would remove the right for some international students to bring family members into the country.

For more than a decade, successive Conservative-led governments have promised to cut migration — once targeting a net figure of less than 100,000.

But ONS data published yesterday showed a net 606,000 people came to Britain in the year ending December 2022. Previous data covering the year ending June 2022 had shown a net figure of 504,000, and this was revised upwards in the latest release, also to 606,000.

How it stacks up

The data showed overall immigration in 2022 at around 1.16 million, offset by emigration of 557,000. The ONS said 925,000 of those arriving in

2022 were non-EU nationals, 151,000 came from the EU and 88,000 were British citizens.

It estimated that in 2022 under the special visa schemes there were 114,000 long-term arrivals from Ukraine and 52,000 from Hong Kong.

Net migration to Britain in 2015, the year before the Brexit referendum, was 329,000.

“The main drivers of the increase were people coming to the UK from non-EU countries for work, study and for humanitarian purposes, including those arriving from Ukraine and Hong Kong,” said Jay Lindop, Director of the Centre for International Migration at the ONS.