Immigration
(asked on 19th July 2018) - View Source
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many non-EU immigrants entered the UK in the last year for which figures are available, broken down by country of origin.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Letter from John Pullinger CB, National Statistician, to The Lord Empey, dated 24 July 2018.
Dear Lord Empey,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am replying to your Parliamentary Question asking what assessment has been made of any change in immigration numbers from non-EU countries between the last two years for which figures are available (HL9690); and how many non-EU immigrants entered the UK in the last year for which figures are available, broken down by country of origin (HL9692).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) released the latest estimates (for the year ending December 2017) of Long-Term International Migration (LTIM) on 16 July 2018[1]. Table 1 shows the immigration, emigration and net migration estimates for the UK of non-EU citizens for years ending December 2016 and December 2017 and the Confidence Intervals (CI) associated with these estimates.
Non-EU immigration (311,000) is similar to the level seen in 2011. The latest increase (Table 1) follows a low level of non-EU study immigration in the year ending September 2016, which was not reflected in the most comparable visa and Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data. We therefore advise users to avoid comparing the latest year on year change for students and non-EU migration as a whole, but instead to look at the broader evidence and longer time series, allowing a better assessment of trends and showing that non-EU immigration has remained relatively stable over the past few years.
Within the latest publication an illustrative revised trend was used to adjust for the unusual pattern in the non-EU student immigration in the year ending September 2016 and we concluded that net migration has been broadly stable over the last year.
Estimates of LTIM to and from the UK are produced by ONS primarily based on data from the International Passenger Survey (IPS), with adjustments made for asylum seekers and people whose intentions change regarding their length of stay. Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) data on migration to and from Northern Ireland, based on GP registrations. LTIM estimates are based on the United Nations definition of a long-term international migrant, that is, someone who changes their country of usual residence for a period of one year or more. Further detail on the methodology related to international migration is available via the ONS website[2].
The latest available estimates of long term international migration of non-EU immigrants entering the UK broken down by country of last residence (assumed to align to country of origin in your question) is for year ending December 2016 from the International Passenger Survey (IPS). A breakdown by country of last residence can be found in the table International Passenger Survey 3.01, Citizenship by Country of Last or Next Residence and is summarised in Table 2[3].
Table 1: UK Immigration, emigration and net migration of non-EU citizens
| Year ending December: 2017 | Year ending December: 2016 | ||
| Estimate[4] | +/- CI | Estimate | +/- CI[5] |
Immigration | 311,000 | 23,000 | 265,000 | 20,000 |
Emigration | 84,000 | 10,000 | 90,000 | 10,000 |
Net Migration | +227,000 | 25,000 | +175,000 | 23,000 |
Source: Office for National Statistics, Home Office, Central Statistics Office Ireland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
Table 2: UK Immigration and net migration of non-EU citizens by country of last residence
| 2016 | |
Country of last residence: | Estimate | +/- CI5 |
European Union |
|
|
Immigration | 10,000 | 5,000 |
Net Migration | +6,000 | 6,000 |
Non-European Union |
|
|
Immigration | 212,000 | 20,000 |
Net Migration | +133,000 | 22,000 |
Source: Office for National Statistics
The data sources of Table 1 and Table 2 for year ending December 2016 differ because Table 2 is based solely on IPS estimates and Table 1 is based on the adjusted LTIM estimates, as described above.
Yours sincerely
John Pullinger
[4] Year includes provisional estimates for 2017
[5] CI= Confidence Interval. These table use 95% confidence intervals (CI) to indicate the robustness of each estimate.