Net migration to the UK has dropped by two-thirds in a single year, driven by a huge drop in people coming to Britain for work or study, new figures show.
The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show that, in the 12 months to June, net migration was an estimated 204,000 – down 69 per cent from 649,000 a year earlier and the lowest annual figure since 2021.
Net migration – the difference between the number of people moving long-term to the country and the number of people leaving – peaked at 944,000 in 2023 but has fallen sharply since then, newly revised figures released last week revealed.
The decline has been driven by fewer non-EU nationals coming to the UK, as well as more EU and British nationals leaving the UK than arriving. There is also a higher share of migrants coming through the asylum system, experts said.
Around 70,000 EU nationals are predicted to have left the UK in the year up to June, continuing a downward trend since the Brexit referendum. Meanwhile, some 109,000 British nationals are thought to have left the UK in this time, projections from the ONS found.
Mary Gregory, ONS executive director for population and census, said: “Net migration is at the lowest level seen since 2021, when pandemic lockdown restrictions were lifted, and the new immigration system was introduced following the UK’s EU exit.”
She pointed to fewer people from outside the EU arriving for work and study, driving the fall, as well as a decline in the number of dependants and a gradual increase in the number of Brits leaving the UK.
She said that Indian and Chinese nationals, who originally arrived on study visas, were leaving the UK and 90 per cent of the British people emigrating were of working age.
Analysis of the latest figures by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford pointed to changes made under the Conservatives to restrict foreign students’ ability to bring family members to the UK as a reason for falling migration.
The number of study dependants coming to the UK has fallen from some 123,000 arriving on this visa in 2023, to 13,000 people actually leaving the UK in 2025.
The number of work visa grants is also falling following the closure of the health and social care visa route to overseas workers in July this year. Some 133,000 skilled worker visas, including health and social care, were granted in the year ending September 2025 – down 57 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier.
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “Net migration is at its lowest level in half a decade and has fallen by more than two-thirds under this government.
“But we are going further because the pace and scale of migration has placed immense pressure on local communities. Last week, I announced reforms to our migration system to ensure that those who come here must contribute and put in more than they take out.”
Reacting to the fall, Sir Keir Starmer said it is “a step in the right direction” after the “Boriswave” - a reference to a surge of foreign workers encouraged to come to the UK under Boris Johnson’s government after the pandemic.
Dr Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory, said: “While net migration has returned to pre-Brexit levels, the composition is now quite different: non-EU net migration is still much larger than it was pre-Brexit, EU much lower, and a higher share of migrants are coming through the asylum system.
“Net migration has fallen substantially, but this will not necessarily be sustained long term. In particular, negative net migration of EU citizens who arrived before Brexit is currently still subtracting quite a lot from the figures, and this won’t go on forever.”
Dr Ben Brindle, researcher at the Migration Observatory, said the economic impact of the falling net migration was likely to be relatively small because it came from care workers and family members of students.
He added that the type of migration to the UK was becoming “less favourable from an economic perspective, with fewer people getting skilled worker visas and a higher share of refugees, who often need a lot of support”.
Sunder Katwala, director of immigration think tank British Future, said, while there has been a significant drop in net migration, this has not cut through to the public, “who still think immigration is going up”.
“Net migration has now dropped by two-thirds in the last year, and by three-quarters since its post-Covid peak. It is time that our immigration debate caught up with reality,” he said.
Labour has announced further plans aimed at reducing migration to the UK, including for “earned” settlement and a doubling of the wait time for migrants to be able to apply for indefinite leave to remain from five to 10 years.
There would also be conditions migrants need to meet, such as having a clean criminal record and speaking English to A-level standard, and they could be fast-tracked or forced to wait longer depending on their “contributions” to the UK.
Think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research’s Marley Morris said the government’s new reforms are expected to lead to a further fall, but warned: “The government will need to be careful to balance the need to manage migration with its other priorities on boosting economic growth, supporting housebuilding, and protecting public services.”
Reacting to the figures, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the fall was driven by Conservative reforms, “but we need to go much further”.
He said: “Under a future Conservative government, only those who make a real contribution can stay permanently, and only British citizens will be eligible for benefits funded by British taxpayers.”
