Immigration for work for non-EU nationals has fallen by a half, new figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal.

The number of people immigrating minus the number of people emigrating is provisionally estimated to be 431,000 in the year ending December 2024, compared with 860,000 in the year ending December 2023.

There have also been 17% fewer applications to study in the UK from would-be immigrants, the figures show, while total long-term immigration was a third down on the previous year, with 948,000 coming to the UK.

Meanwhile, 517,000 people left the UK, an increase of 11% on the previous year.

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Director of population statistics at the ONS Mary Gregory said: “Our provisional estimates show net migration has almost halved compared with the previous year, driven by falling numbers of people coming to work and study, particularly student dependants.

“This follows policy changes brought in restricting visa applications.

“There has also been an increase in emigration over the 12 months to December 2024, especially people leaving who originally came on study visas once pandemic travel restrictions to the UK were eased.”

The Migration Observatory, an independent research and analysis group based at Oxford university, responded to the new figures with a tweet that simply stated: “Blimey. Long-term net migration down by almost 50% to 431,000. Massive decline – we’ve expected this for a while.”

The fall in net migration is largely the result of measures introduced by the then Conservative government at the end of 2023, which were aimed at reducing immigration by about 300,000 a year. The measures included increasing salary thresholds, replacing the shortage occupation list, reforming work and study visas so that fewer dependents would arrive with students and requiring a higher level of English across all immigration routes.

Last week, the Starmer government announced fresh proposals in an immigration white paper, which ministers claimed would reduce reliance on overseas labour.

 

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