Migration to UK hit four year high – before Covid lockdown

Net migration in the UK has risen to its highest level in four years, driven by a jump in non-eu students coming to study.

In the year to March the balance b et ween the number of people entering and leaving the country was around 313,000, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

This has risen by around 92,000 since March last year and is the highest level since March 2016, when net migration was an estimated 326,000.

Over the past year, a r o u n d 7 1 5 , 0 0 0 p e o - ple moved to the UK and around 403,000 people left the UK, according to a rep or t published yesterday.

The report said :“The increase in immigration and net migration is being driven by an increase in non-EU nationals arr iving in the UK for study reasons.”

Of those coming to the UK ,257,000 were arr iving for study, with 458,000 arriving for work, family or other reasons.

Immigration from non-EU countries rose to 437,000, a jump of 31 per cent in the latest year and the highest it has ever been since records began in 1975, when it was 93,000, the data shows.

Meanwhile, immigration from EU countries fell by 4 per cent in the latest year to 195,000 – its lowest level since 2012.

The figures, to the end of March ,“do not take into account the significant impact the pandemic has had on international migration since then”, ONS migration centre director Jay Lindop said.