Has migration to the UK peaked? Net migration in the year to June hit 672,000, down from 745,000 in 2022. Some 1.2 million people came to Britain whilst 508,000 moved overseas. The ONS says it’s too early to call this a downward trend, but that immigration seems to be slowing whilst emigration is increasing.
Perhaps the biggest story though is the size of some of the revisions. The ONS had previously put the net migration figure for 2022 at just over 600,000. Today they found 140,000 more people and revised it up to 745,000. This is a staggering change. Taken with today’s figure, that new peak suggests numbers are coming down. But how much can we trust the ONS’s estimates? Will today’s number be revised up in six months’ time?
According to the latest figures, almost everyone arriving in the UK was from outside the EU (some 968,000) with a growing number of these non-EU nationals arriving for work (33 per cent compared with 23 per cent a year ago).
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