This guide has been developed to help people answer key questions about migrants in local areas around the UK: How many migrants are there in different local areas? How is this changing over time? What do we know about the integration of migrants at sub-national levels?
There are many sources of migration data at the local level. Each source has its own strengths and limitations and may be used for different purposes. This guide brings together official data sources on migration at the local authority (council) level, presenting key data in interactive charts and providing links to publicly available data sources.
A note on using this guide:
- Each chart is introduced with brief information about the data source and examples of the kinds of findings the data can be used to explore.
- In each chart, you can highlight your local authority or region by typing into one of the search bars on the right-hand side of the graph. Clicking on a local authority will display local data alongside the UK average. In many charts, you can also change which data are displayed, for example by selecting a different year, nationality group or other measure.
- Charts group local authorities into value ranges, or bands. For example, a chart might group local authorities as ‘0–5%’, ‘5–10%’, ‘10–20%’ and so on. A band such as ‘5–10%’ should be read as 5% up to, but not including, 10%. Some charts show rates per 10,000 people, which means the number of cases or people for every 10,000 local residents. This is used when the values being shown are very small and may be difficult to read as percentages. Most charts can be viewed at two levels of detail: the standard simplified view, which uses broader bands, and a more detailed view, which shows a more granular breakdown of the data.
- Below each chart, you will find further information on the data sources used, including, where possible, links to access the data directly.
- Not sure what the name of your local authority is? Click here to visit a UK Government site and search for your local authority by postcode.
Scroll down or use the thematic tiles below to access the charts.
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Understanding the Evidence
Different data sources define migrants in different ways, and in some cases this will affect how the data should be interpreted. The sources in this guide include data which break down the population by country of birth, nationality, immigration status (for example, asylum seekers), domicile, and proficiency in English. The Migration Observatory briefing, Who Counts as a Migrant?, provides a more detailed discussion of the implications of using different definitions.
Where a data source allows analysis by both country of birth and nationality, this guide uses country of birth as the default option, because country of birth almost never changes over time but nationality often does. Migration data by nationality exclude migrants who, for instance, were born abroad and held a foreign citizenship, but have since migrated to the UK and become British citizens. This means that nationality data is a less stable basis for understanding changes in the UK’s migrant population. At the same time, nationality can be a more useful metric in certain circumstances, because foreign nationals often have more limited entitlements compared with British citizens. Naturalisation – although these figures are no longer available at the local level – is also seen as an important measure of integration into UK society.
Some data sources measure populations at a given point in time. These are referred to as stocks.
Other data sources measure movements into (immigration) or out of (emigration) the UK. These are often referred to as flows. Net migration is equal to the difference between the inward and outward flows (immigration minus emigration).
There are two main types of migration data at the local level used in this guide: census data and administrative records. Survey data, while once a key source of international migration data in the UK, have become less relevant in recent years. Learn more about these data sources, their strengths and their limitations, by clicking on the headers to expand the sections below.
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Census data
Census data aim to provide a complete count of everyone living in the UK at the time of the census. Because they aim to count everyone ...Click to read more.Census data aim to provide a complete count of everyone living in the UK at the time of the census. Because they aim to count everyone, census data provide more accurate figures at the local level than estimates based on surveys or administrative records. However, as censuses are only conducted every ten years in the UK, they do not give up-to-date information on population trends.
England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland each conduct their own census, and UK-wide census figures are produced by combining data from these censuses. The most recent censuses took place in 2021 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and in 2022 in Scotland. This guide uses data from the 2011 and 2021/22 censuses to present the resident foreign-born population by country of birth and English language proficiency at the local level. No attempt is made in this guide to reconcile population changes which took place between the 2021 and 2022 censuses.
Although the 2021/22 censuses are now the most current comprehensive source of local population data, they are already several years old. As such, this guide relies on administrative data to provide more up-to-date, if more partial, pictures of the migrant population at the local level.
To learn more about the Census, visit the Office for National Statistics (ONS) website.
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Administrative data
This guide makes use of a variety of administrative data sources ...Click to read more.HMRC Pay As You Earn Real Time Information and the Migrant Worker Scan
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) collects statistics on payrolled employments by nationality in the UK. These data provide a record of the number of payrolled employee jobs held by individuals of different nationalities, broken down by local authority and by month. It is derived from the Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (PAYE RTI) system and Migrant Worker Scan (MWS) data.
These data have several important characteristics that users should bear in mind.
- The data count payrolled employments, i.e. jobs paid through the PAYE system. A single individual can hold more than one payrolled employment, so there will be more employments than employees, though they follow similar trends.
- The data do not cover non-payrolled work, including self-employment. They therefore capture only part of the labour market, and the share of workers excluded will vary across areas and sectors.
- The MWS records nationality at the point of National Insurance number (NINo) registration and is not updated in the case of subsequent changes to nationality, such as naturalisation (see below for more information on NINo registration data). This means that non-UK national figures may be higher than the true current count of non-UK nationals in employment, because some individuals recorded as non-UK nationals will have since become British citizens. However, this also makes the data more useful for tracking outcomes and trajectories over time, because individuals do not move out of the non-UK category after naturalisation. In that sense, the measure behaves more like country of birth than current nationality.
- Geographic location is based on the address of the employee, not the address of the employer.
The HMRC data used in this guide were obtained through a Freedom of Information request to HMRC (FOI 2025/184927) initiated by Neil O’Brien MP which cover payrolled employments by nationality and local authority from July 2014 to December 2024.
In April 2026, HMRC made these data publicly available and updated them to cover up to December 2025. This guide will itself be updated to include these data in due course.
To access these data or learn more about HMRC PAYE RTI statistics, visit the HMRC website.
Migration flow estimates
The migration flow data presented in Figure 6 come from the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) mid-year population estimates (Table MYEB3 in the detailed time series). These estimates are produced using a cohort component method. In practice, this means that ONS starts with the population at one point in time and then tracks how the size of different groups within it, such as non-EU nationals who are residents of the UK, changes year to year because of births, deaths and migration. It is a relatively new development (since 2021) that migration flows have been estimated using administrative data sources, which include records from the Home Office and Department for Work and Pensions. Previously, migration flows were estimated using the International Passenger Survey.
The current estimates include emigrating and returning Britons, in addition to immigrating and emigrating foreigners. Because the ONS provides unrounded estimates to allow for further analysis, users should bear in mind that the figures are not necessarily accurate at the level of detail implied by the numbers, and that small estimates do not represent particular individuals.
To learn more about how the ONS produces migration flow estimates, visit their website.
For national-level analysis on immigration and emigration flows, see the Migration Observatory briefing, Net migration to the UK.
National Insurance Number registrations
National Insurance Number (NINo) data provide information on non-UK nationals at the point they first register for a NINo, with data provided by local authority of residence. A NINo is generally required for anyone who wants to work or claim benefits but will exclude many people who are neither working nor claiming benefits, including children. NINo registrations are therefore not an exact measure of immigration inflows: applicants may have come to the UK months or even years before registering, and some migrants will never register. A person can only register once for a NINo, so if they leave the UK and return, they will not appear again in the new registrations data. Nonetheless, they are a consistently updated source of registrations which is disaggregated by nationality, and therefore partially describe non-UK entrants into the UK labour market and welfare system.
To learn more about NINo data, see guidance provided by DWP.
Home Office asylum and resettlement data
Home Office data provide information on people in contact with the Home Office for different reasons, e.g., citizenship or asylum applications. Most Home Office data are only available at the national level, although exceptions include data on asylum seekers in receipt of government support, refugees resettled through different schemes, and arrivals of those on ‘humanitarian visas’, such as the Homes for Ukraine Scheme.
Local authority data on asylum seekers are broken down into three main types of support:
- Section 95, which is for destitute asylum seekers whose claims are pending and includes accommodation, financial support for essential living costs or both;
- Section 98, which is temporary emergency support for asylum seekers whose applications for Section 95 support are being considered, is usually provided as initial accommodation with essential needs covered;
- Section 4, which is provided to some refused asylum seekers who are destitute but temporarily unable to leave the UK. It normally includes accommodation and non-cash financial support through a government-issued prepaid payment card.
Data on accommodation type are also provided at the local level. Hotel and contingency accommodation is temporary asylum housing used when there is not enough standard accommodation available. Dispersal accommodation is longer-term asylum housing, usually in shared or self-contained properties rather than hotels. Asylum seekers with private incomes are excluded from these statistics.
Local authority data are also available on refugees resettled through formal government resettlement schemes. These data are distinct from asylum support data: resettled refugees have been granted protection status before arriving in the UK, whereas asylum seekers are people waiting for a decision on their claim which they initiated in the UK. With the exception of people resettled through routes focused on Afghanistan, these figures show arrivals through different resettlement schemes during the period, not the number of resettled refugees currently living in each local authority. This means the data do not reflect the movement of people from one part of the UK to another, nor do they account for the departure of those who leave the country altogether.
There are several caveats in the resettlement data worth noting. Resettlement activity was paused in the second and third quarters of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and recommenced in December 2020. The data do not include people resettled under the Gateway Protection Programme, which used to resettle an average of around 700 people per year until it ended in 2020.
Afghanistan-related figures should be treated with particular care. The Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARP) launched on 1 April 2021. The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme was announced on 18 August 2021, opened on 6 January 2022 and aimed to resettle up to 20,000 people at risk. The first arrivals on the Afghanistan Response Route arrived in July 2024. People resettled or relocated under the Afghan Resettlement Programme are included in the statistics, but these data are provisional and subject to change while records continue to be updated. Furthermore, unlike the other resettlement data, local data on resettlement from Afghanistan are not provided as the number of arrivals in a given quarter. Instead, the Home Office publishes the number of people resettled under ARP who are currently living in each local authority.
In some cases, local authority-level data are available for people arriving through ‘humanitarian’ visa routes, notably the Homes for Ukraine Scheme. These data record arrivals by the sponsor’s postcode or intended accommodation postcode, so they show where people were initially assigned rather than where they currently live. They also exclude arrivals under the Scottish and Welsh super-sponsor schemes, meaning that they undercount total Homes for Ukraine arrivals in those nations. Local-level data on the Hong Kong British National (Overseas) – hereafter, BN(O) – route are not made public.
Background information on these data can be found in Home Office guidance, User Guide to: Immigration system statistics.
For more information see the following Migration Observatory pieces:
- Asylum and refugee resettlement in the UK
- Afghan asylum seekers and refugees in the UK
- Asylum accommodation in the UK
- Ukrainian migration to the UK
- Q&A: The new Hong Kong British National (Overseas) visa
HESA student data
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) student data used in this guide provide information on UK higher education students by place of domicile, defined as the place of normal residence before taking up study, rather than by country of birth or nationality. Non-UK domiciled students will therefore include some UK citizens who were living abroad before returning to study.
While these specific data come from a tailored dataset purchased from HESA, other data on international students are freely available on the their website, alongside background information.
Migration Observatory has produced a briefing on this topic, Student migration to the UK.
Population projections
Population projections are produced by ONS (England), National Records of Scotland (NRS), and StatsWales based on assumptions about fertility, mortality and migration. They are not forecasts: actual future populations will differ from projected ones, sometimes substantially, as a result of changing demographic trends and policy changes including migration policy. The projections presented in this guide are 2022-based subnational projections. Data are not available for Northern Ireland on a comparable basis and Northern Ireland is therefore not included in Figure 16.
Detailed guidance on the quality and methodology used to produce population projections in the UK are available on the ONS website.
For more information, see the Migration Observatory briefing, The Impact of Migration on UK Population Growth.
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Survey data
The Annual Population Survey (APS) and the Labour Force Survey (LFS) are large household surveys that have historically been used to produce local-level estimates ...Click to read more.The Annual Population Survey (APS) and the Labour Force Survey (LFS) are large household surveys that have historically been used to produce local-level estimates of the foreign-born and non-UK national populations. However, the reliability of these surveys for local-level migration analysis has declined significantly in recent years. Response rates have fallen over the past two decades, and the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced a rapid shift from face-to-face to telephone interviewing, introduced further problems with weighting, imputation and the quality of estimates. At the local authority level, where sample sizes are already small, these problems are particularly acute.
As a result, this guide no longer uses APS or LFS data for local-level analysis of the migrant population. The census (for population stock) and HMRC data (for workforce data that are more up to date, explained above) are used instead.
The IPS, which was the basis for immigration, emigration and net migration flow estimates, was suspended in March 2020 due to COVID-19. The ONS Local Area Migration Indicators Suite, which brought together IPS-based flow estimates alongside other local migration indicators, was therefore discontinued. The loss of this publication means that several indicators previously available on this page, such as short-term immigration inflow estimates, GP registration data, and births to non-UK-born mothers, are no longer available in a form suitable for local-level analysis across the UK. The migration flow data now presented in this guide come from a different source, which is based on administrative data (see the above section on administrative data for more information).
Migrant population and workforce
The 2021/22 censuses provide the most recent comprehensive picture of where migrants live across the UK, but they are now several years old. For a more current picture of migrants in the local workforce, this guide uses HMRC employments data, which are available up to December 2024 but cover only payrolled employments.
Figures 1 and 2 show the foreign-born population from the censuses. The data measure where people were born, not their current nationality. Some of those counted as foreign-born have been living in the UK for decades and may have British citizenship. Figures 3, 4 and 5 show payrolled employments by nationality from HMRC.
At the time of the last censuses in the UK, all ten local authorities with the highest shares of foreign-born residents among the local population were London boroughs, led by Brent (56%), Westminster (56%) and Kensington and Chelsea (54%). Outside London, Cambridge saw its foreign-born share rise from 29% to 38% between 2011 and 2021 and Watford from 25% to 34% – both among the largest increases recorded outside London over the decade. It is possible that Cambridge’s growth partly reflects its continued attraction of international students and researchers, while Watford’s may reflect its role as a commuter and logistics hub drawing workers from across the EU and beyond, though the Census does not record reasons for migration. In Scotland, the Edinburgh had the highest foreign-born share at 23%, followed by Aberdeen (21%) and Glasgow (19%). In Wales and Northern Ireland, Cardiff and Belfast led at 17% and 12%, respectively.
Figure 1
While Figure 1 shows the overall share of the population who are foreign-born, Figure 2 below looks at the composition of that foreign-born population. Specifically, it shows the split within the foreign-born population (not the total population) between those born in EU countries and those born outside the EU.
In 2021, the local authorities with the highest shares of EU-born residents within their foreign-born populations were concentrated mainly in Northern Ireland and parts of rural England. For example, Mid Ulster, Fermanagh and Omagh, and Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon all had EU-born shares well above 70%. This pattern reflects the many residents who were born in the Republic of Ireland as well as longer-standing settlement trends linked to post-enlargement EU migration. In Northern Ireland, the recruitment of migrant workers into sectors such as food processing and agriculture has been documented since the 2000s (Bell, Jarman and Lefebvre, 2004). More broadly, research on post-enlargement migration has shown how workers from EU accession states became concentrated in lower-skilled jobs in the United Kingdom (Drinkwater, Eade and Garapich, 2009), while later review work by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) (2014) highlighted the concentration of migrant workers in particular local labour markets and low-skilled sectors. The fact that the same Northern Ireland local authorities already ranked among those with the highest EU-born shares in 2011 suggests that this concentration deepened over the decade rather than emerging only after Brexit.
Figure 2
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Learn more about these data
Figures 1 and 2 draw on data from the 2011 and 2021/22 censuses across all four UK nations. Census data provide more reliable local-level figures than survey-based sources. However, as censuses are conducted only every ten years, they do not reflect more recent changes in the migrant population.
Due to COVID-19, Scotland conducted its census in 2022, one year later than the rest of the UK. The figures presented here do not attempt to reconcile population changes that occurred between the 2021 and 2022 censuses. See the ONS website for more details.
Download the source data for these charts:
- 2011 data for England and Wales from NOMIS (Table QS203UK)
- 2021 data for England and Wales from NOMIS (Table TS012)
- 2011 data for Northern Ireland from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research agency (NISRA) website (Table KS204NI)
- 2021 data for Northern Ireland from the NISRA custom table builder
- 2011 and 2022 data for Scotland from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) custom data builder
Download the data in these charts for England and Wales in 2011 from NOMIS (QS203UK)
Download the data in this chart for England and Wales in 2021 from NOMIS (TS012)
Download the data in these charts for Northern Ireland in 2011 from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research agency (NISRA) website (KS204NI)
Download the data in these charts for Northern Ireland in 2021 from the NISRA custom table builder
Download the data in these charts for Scotland in 2011 and 2022 from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) custom data builder
Figures 3, 4 and 5 draw on a different data source than Figures 1 and 2: payrolled employment records from HMRC’s Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (PAYE RTI) system. Unlike the census, which counts the resident population at a single point in time every 10 years, PAYE RTI data track the number of jobs held by people of different nationalities on a monthly basis.
Figure 3 shows the share of foreign nationals among all payrolled employments in each local authority. Between December 2014 and December 2024, both Middlesbrough and Sunderland’s non-UK employment shares rose from 6% to 23%, among the largest increases of any local authority in the UK. Both are North East towns which had very low non-UK employment shares a decade ago. In Sunderland, manufacturing, transport and storage, and health and social work account for relatively large shares of employments (ONS, 2026). For Middlesbrough, health and social care is one of the largest employment sectors across the wider Tees Valley area (Tees Valley Combined Authority, 2022). These sectoral patterns may help explain rising non-UK employment since they are consistent with national evidence showing relatively high migrant concentrations in sectors such as food manufacturing, warehousing and social care (MAC, 2020; Rolfe and Hudson-Sharpe, 2021). However, PAYE RTI data do not record the reasons for employment growth at the local level, so this interpretation should be treated with caution.
Figure 3
While Figure 3 shows the share of payrolled employments held by foreign nationals among total payrolled employments, Figure 4 looks at the composition of that foreign national workforce split between EU and non-EU nationals. It does not show the percentage of the total workforce who are EU or non-EU.
Between 2019 and 2024, East Lindsey (East Midlands) saw EU employment fall by 25% and Ceredigion (Wales) by 36%. These are among the largest shifts away from EU employments among any local authority in the UK. Both councils are rural areas that previously relied heavily on EU workers in the agri-food and packaging sectors, including seasonal work (East Lindsey District Council, 2021; Welsh Government, 2019). This dependence is well documented in research on agricultural labour markets in the United Kingdom more broadly (e.g., MAC, 2013).
Figure 4
Figure 5 shifts the focus from annual snapshots to change over time, showing the percentage change in the number of foreign national employments in each local authority between December 2019 and December 2024. December 2019 is used as the pre-pandemic baseline.
In absolute terms, Birmingham (West Midlands) added 49,400 non-UK employees between 2019 and 2024 (+53%), and Manchester (North West) added 29,500 (+45%). These are the two largest increases of any local authority outside of London.
Figure 5
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Learn more about these data
HMRC’s PAYE RTI system and the Migrant Worker Scan data for the basis of the data presented in Figures 3–5. Covering the period from December 2014 to December 2024, the data allow users to observe how the composition of the foreign national workforce has changed over time, including the period around the UK’s departure from the European Union.
The employment data used in this guide were obtained through a Freedom of Information request (FOI 2025/184927) made to HMRC. While the data were not publicly accessible when this guide was being prepared, they have since been published by HMRC up to December 2025 and are available for download here. This guide will be updated will these new data in due course.
International migration flows
International migration flows refer to the number of people moving to (inflows, or immigration) or away from (outflows, or emigration) a country over a given period. Net migration is the difference between immigration to and emigration from a given country. Measuring these flows at the local level is difficult.
The migration flow data presented here come from the ONS mid-year population estimates detailed time series, which are based on administrative data and National Insurance Number (NINo) registration data, which provide a complementary but partial picture of, among other things, labour market entry by non-UK nationals.
Figure 6 draws on the ONS estimates and include emigrating and returning British citizens.
In 2024, 26,100 people are estimated to have immigrated to Newham (London) and 23,400 to Coventry (West Midlands), representing nearly 700 and 635 people per 10,000 (or 7% and 6%) of the local population of each area, respectively. These are the highest flow rates among English local authorities, excluding the City of London, where a relatively modest 2,700 inflows translated into more than 1,800 per 10,000 (18%) of its total population. Oxford (South East), Leicester (East Midlands), Nottingham (East Midlands) and Cambridge (east of England) also noted relatively significant shares of newly arrived migrants in 2024 – from roughly 500 to 600 per 10,000. Together, these examples highlight the role of university cities and diverse urban economies in attracting international migrants.
Outside of England, 14,100 immigrants moved to Glasgow in 2024, or around 220 people per 10,000 of the local population – the highest number and concentration for any non-English local authority. However, estimated inflow rates across Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales were generally lower than in England: around one quarter of councils had 100 or more inflows per 10,000 residents, compared with more than half of English councils.
Rates of emigration, or outflows, were highest in the boroughs of Inner London, but typically counter-balanced by even higher rates of immigration – for example in Camden and Tower Hamlets. The City of London, Newham and Luton had the highest net migration rates in 2024.
Figure 6
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Learn more about these data
Figure 6 presents international migration flows (immigration, emigration and net migration) at the local authority level, expressed as rates per 10,000 of the resident population. The data come from the ONS mid-year population estimates.
These estimates replace earlier survey-based local area flow estimates, and draw on a range of sources across the different sub-groups (e.g., EU citizens, non-UK citizens and British citizens).
Note that the above estimates include emigrating and returning British citizens as well as international migrants. ONS provides unrounded figures to allow for further analysis, but users should bear in mind that the estimates carry uncertainty and are not necessarily accurate at the level of detail implied by the numbers. Small estimates in particular do not represent a definitive count of individuals.
Data are not available for all local authorities in all years.
Download the data in this chart from ONS (MYEB3)
National Insurance Number (NINo) registration data provide a different window onto migration at the local level. A NINo is required by anyone who wants to work or claim benefits in the UK, and the data include the nationality and local authority of the registrant when they register. Because registration typically happens at or around the point of entering the labour market, NINo data are sometimes used as a proxy for labour market entry by international migrants.
Figure 7 shows that, in 2025, the City of London had the highest share of foreign national NINo registrations per 10,000 of the total population (948 per 10,000, though with a small total population of around 15,000), followed by Newham (551) and Tower Hamlets (356). Westminster (342) and Hounslow (309) also featured in the top five. These are all London boroughs with large, internationally mobile working-age populations. Across the UK, the highest rates outside London were recorded in Cambridge (281 per 10,000) and Coventry (277), reflecting the concentration of international students and workers in university cities. The highest rates in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales were observed in Belfast (132), Edinburgh (184) and Cardiff (135).
Figure 7
While Figure 7 shows foreign national NINo registrations as a share of the total resident population, Figure 8 looks at the composition of those foreign national registrations, specifically the split between EU and non-EU nationals.
In 2025, the local authorities with the highest EU shares of NINo registrations among foreign nationals were all in Northern Ireland: Derry City and Strabane (57%), Newry, Mourne and Down (54%), Fermanagh and Omagh (45%) and Causeway Coast and Glens (38%). This reflects the continued importance of EU workers, particularly from the Republic of Ireland and Eastern Europe, in Northern Ireland’s economy, as well as the particular role of the Common Travel Area in facilitating cross-border labour mobility on the island of Ireland after Brexit (McGinnity et al., 2023; CSO and NISRA, 2025). In England, the highest EU shares were recorded in rural agricultural areas such as South Holland and Boston in Lincolnshire, East Midlands, where EU workers continue to dominate the non-UK workforce.
Figure 8
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Learn more about these data
NINo data are reliable and timely. However, they are not a measure of immigration inflows. Some migrants register months or years after arriving, while others never register at all. Because a person can only register once, return migrants do not ‘reappear’ in the data and internal migration is not counted.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) publishes further NINo breakdowns by age, sex and nationality through its Stat-Xplore online tool. These figures were tabulated as rolling years ending in September.
Download the data in these charts from DWP via Stat-Xplore
Asylum seekers, refugees and humanitarian routes
Local-level data on asylum seekers, refugees and people coming to the UK through humanitarian visa routes are made available in several Home Office administrative datasets. This section has been expanded from previous versions of this guide to reflect the range of data now available, including the number of people in different types of asylum seeker accommodation, and Homes for Ukraine arrivals.
Figures 9 to 13 draw on Home Office administrative data on asylum seekers, refugees and humanitarian visas. These data are distinct from the census and employment data used in earlier sections in that they record people by their immigration status rather than by country of birth or nationality.
Figure 9 shows the number of asylum seekers in receipt of Home Office support per 10,000 of the resident population for each local authority in March and September from 2019 to 2025. The data cover only those asylum seekers who are supported by the Home Office, rather than the total asylum seeker population.
At the end of September 2025, Hillingdon had 71 asylum seekers in receipt of support per 10,000 population (2,345 people) and Hounslow 69 per 10,000 (2,078 people). These were the two highest rates of any local authority in England. Both are outer west London boroughs near Heathrow Airport. Their high rates reflect the use of hotels and other contingency accommodation in the area. Outside of England, Glasgow had 58 asylum seekers per 10,000 population (3,777 people) – the highest rate in Scotland, and among the highest in the UK – with no use of hotels. Glasgow has been amongst the top locations for asylum seekers in the UK since the early 2000s.
Figure 9
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Learn more about these data
The data presented in the above figure cover only those asylum seekers supported under Section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (support for those who are destitute and had their asylum claim rejected, but who are temporarily unable to leave the UK), Section 95 (support for destitute asylum seekers whose claims are pending), and Section 98 (short-term support provided while a Section 95 claim is being assessed). Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) are excluded.
Download the data in this chart from the Home Office (Asy_D11)
While Figure 9 presents the overall rate of asylum seeker support, Figure 10 looks at the type of accommodation provided. Specifically, it shows the share of supported asylum seekers housed in hotels and similar contingency accommodation, as opposed to dispersal accommodation or other arrangements. Hotel and contingency accommodation is temporary asylum housing, typically used when standard accommodation is unavailable. Dispersal accommodation is longer-term asylum housing, usually in shared or self-contained properties rather than hotels. For a more detailed explanation of the different types of asylum accommodation support, see the Migration Observatory briefing, Asylum accommodation in the UK.
Figure 10 shows a shift in the accommodation used to house asylum seekers between 2022 and 2025. In 2022, dispersal accommodation dominated in most local authorities. By 2025, hotel and contingency accommodation had become the dominant form in many areas, particularly in London, the South East and the North West.
Figure 10
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Learn more about these data
The data presented in Figure 10 were made available at the local level starting in December 2022. As in the case of Figure 9, they only cover asylum seekers supported by the Home Office under Sections 4, 95 and 98 of the Asylum Act 1999. Not all asylum seekers are supported by the Home Office in these ways. Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) are excluded from these statistics.
The “Other” accommodation category includes subsistence-only support (financial support payments but no accommodation), initial accommodation, contingency accommodation and other accommodation types. Data are not available for all local authorities in all years.
Download the source data: Home Office asylum support dataset (Table Asy_D11)
Download the data in this chart from the Home Office (Table Asy_D11)
Figure 11 draws on a separate Home Office dataset on cumulative arrivals to the UK via the Homes for Ukraine visa route. The Homes for Ukraine scheme, also known as the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme, launched in March 2022. It allows Ukrainian nationals to come to the UK with a named sponsor – typically a private individual or family – who provides accommodation. The data reflect place of residence on arrival and do not account for subsequent moves. Local-level data on arrivals under the Scottish and Welsh ‘super-sponsor’ schemes are not available, which means the data undercount total Homes for Ukraine arrivals in those nations.
The data are presented below in two different ways. First, the bubbles show the cumulative arrivals between 1 March 2022 and 31 December 2025 and are organised according to the share of arrivals per 10,000 of the total resident population of the local authority. Second, bar charts at the bottom of the figure present the share and number of arrivals in a given year for the years ending December and June, 2023 to 2025.
By December 2025, more than 1,200 people had arrived in Hounslow and 700 in Hillingdon through this route, among the highest numbers of any outer London borough. Both are in the Heathrow corridor and have significant Eastern European communities. However, the data do not record the reasons for sponsor location and this interpretation, so a direct linkage should not be assumed.
For more information, see the Migration Observatory briefing, Ukrainian migration to the UK.
Figure 11
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Learn more about these data
The above data come from the Home Office regional and local authority immigration groups dataset, which show cumulative arrivals across the lifespan of the scheme. Annual arrival figures were calculated by subtracting the number of arrivals recorded over the previous year.
Arrivals are assigned to a local authority using the sponsor’s postcode or intended accommodation postcode. Figures therefore reflect where arrivals were initially assigned, not necessarily where they are currently living. Furthermore, evidence from surveys of Ukrainian arrivals suggests that many have moved at least once since their initial placement (ONS, 2023).
These data are likely to include some duplicate records, do not contain number of arrivals via the Ukraine Family Scheme, undercount arrivals in Northern Ireland, and exclude arrivals through Scottish and Welsh super sponsors. They are also based on local management systems and have not been quality assured to the level of Official Statistics.
They should therefore be interpreted with caution, as an indication of initial assignment, rather than an accurate and up-to-date population count.
Figure 12 shows cumulative arrivals through formal government resettlement schemes and, as with Figure 11, should not be interpreted as showing how many people currently live in each local authority. Resettled refugees are granted protection status before arrival in the United Kingdom and are eligible for government support. This includes people who entered the UK through schemes such as the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS), which supported people fleeing the war in Syria.
These data are distinct from the Homes for Ukraine and asylum support data shown in Figures 9, 10 and 11. Homes for Ukraine is a humanitarian visa route giving people displaced from Ukraine temporary permission to live in the UK, with accommodation provided by sponsors. Asylum support data relate to people already in the UK who are awaiting, or have received, a decision on an asylum claim and who are receiving government support.
Local authority-level arrival data are not available for Afghan resettlement schemes. Stock data showing the number of resettled Afghans living in local authorities across the UK are shown separately in Figure 13.
The bubble chart in Figure 12 shows cumulative arrivals of resettled refugees between the years ending September 2015 and September 2025. Many people who arrived in a given area during this period will since have moved. The bar charts show cumulative arrivals in a given year.
Resettlement arrivals were highest in the mid-to-late 2010s (excluding Afghan resettlement), when Syrian schemes accounted for almost all arrivals and a relatively small group of local authorities, including Bradford, Coventry, Birmingham and the City of Edinburgh, received particularly large numbers. Since 2020, arrivals have been lower and have come through other resettlement routes rather than those focused on Syria. They also appear more geographically dispersed, with recent arrivals spread across a broader mix of local authorities rather than concentrated in a handful of major resettlement areas.
For more analysis, see the Migration Observatory briefing, Asylum and refugee resettlement in the UK.
Figure 12
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The data presented above come from the Home Office Immigration System Statistics resettlement dataset. Resettlement activity was paused in Q2 and Q3 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Some resettled refugees will have moved to other parts of the UK or left the UK after their initial resettlement. These subsequent moves are not captured in the data.
Download the data in this chart from the Home Office (RES_D01)
The Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP) figures presented in Figure 13 show how many people resettled via ARP were recorded as living in local authorities at different points in time, rather than how many arrived over a period. They should therefore be read as population snapshots. Changes between snapshots may reflect new arrivals, people moving between areas, people leaving, or updates to the data. These figures are not directly comparable with the Homes for Ukraine or the resettlement arrivals figures presented earlier.
By December 2025, 37,950 people were recorded in the UK under the Afghan Resettlement Programme, equivalent to 5.5 people per 10,000 residents. Of these, 31,021 were linked to a specific local authority in the published data; the remaining 6,929 were included in the UK total but not assigned to a local area.
The figures were spread across most of the country, with ARP populations recorded in 347 of 361 local authorities. The largest local authority counts were in Leeds (Yorkshire and The Humber, 639), Birmingham (West Midlands, 625), Crawley (South East, 616), Edinburgh (Scotland, 569), Coventry (West Midlands, 553) and Islington (London, 537). Relative to population size, rates ranged from zero in 14 local authorities to 49.7 per 10,000 residents in Crawley (South East). Other high-rate areas included Vale of White Horse (South East, 25.6), Islington (London, 24.1), Tandridge (South East, 21.2) and Hartlepool (North East, 18.5).
For more information, see the Migration Observatory briefing, Afghan asylum seekers and refugees in the UK.
Figure 13
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Figure 13 presents data on Afghan refugees receiving accommodation support at the local authority level, and are drawn from the Home Office regional and local authority immigration groups dataset. They cover people under Afghan resettlement and relocation routes, including ACRS and ARAP/ARR. Not everyone included is necessarily an Afghan citizen.
The figures come from Home Office management information systems and are provisional, so they may change as records are reconciled or updated.
Local authority figures do not always sum to the UK total because some people are recorded nationally but not assigned to a specific local authority. Some local authority counts may also be affected by differences between where people are accommodated and which council is responsible for support.
International students
Although international students are not always thought of as international migrants, and historically have not remained in the UK as long as some other types of migrants, they make up a substantial share of people moving to and living in the UK in a given year.
Figure 14 draws on data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) to present the number of international higher education students, and their share of the total student population. HESA collects information about students’ place of domicile. This is defined as the place of normal residence before taking up study, rather than country of birth or nationality. Non-UK domiciled students will therefore include some UK citizens who were living abroad before returning to the UK to study.
Between 2018/19 and 2023/24, Middlesbrough’s international student share rose from 18% to 57%, an increase of 39 percentage points, and the largest of any local authority in England. This is due to the rapid growth of Teesside University’s international student population, which has been primarily driven by students from Nigeria, India and other non-EU countries (HESA, 2026). Middlesbrough is now in the top five local authorities nationally for international student share, alongside central London boroughs. Across the UK, similar rapid growth in international student shares has been recorded in Newport (+25.7 percentage points) and Sandwell (+24.9 points), reflecting the expansion of international student recruitment by universities in areas that previously had relatively low international student populations.
For more information about international students, see the Migration Observatory briefing, Student Migration to the UK.
Figure 14
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The data used in this guide come from a tailored dataset purchased from HESA and show the share of international students among all higher education students for every UK local authority. In line with HESA counting and suppression rules, counts are rounded to the nearest 5, and percentages based on fewer than 22.5 individuals as the unrounded numerator or denominator are suppressed.
HESA also publishes open-access data on its website, while further breakdowns by individual country of domicile can be purchased.
English language proficiency
English language proficiency is seen as a facilitator of integration, associated with better social and economic outcomes (see, for example, the Home Office’s Indicators of Integration framework). Census data on English language proficiency are collected across all four UK nations, but the questions asked and the categories published differ between nations and between census years. To allow comparison across the UK and over time, the data have been harmonised into two simple categories — “Proficient” and “Not proficient” — using the best available published tables for each nation and year.
In 2011, Boston (32%) and Oldham (28%) had the highest shares of non-UK born residents not proficient in English. By 2021/22, Boston remained top (26%) and Pendle had risen to second (24%). Both are local authorities with large communities of workers from Eastern Europe (Boston) and South Asia (Pendle) where English language acquisition appears to have been slower than in other areas.
For more information on this topic, see the Migration Observatory briefing, English language use and proficiency of migrants in the UK.
Figure 15
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The data in Figure 15 show the share of the foreign-born population in each local authority who do not have proficiency in English, drawing on Census data from 2011 and 2021/22 across all four UK nations.
Because the four UK Censuses ask about English language proficiency in different ways and publish results in different formats, to make the data broadly comparable across the UK and across time, the original responses have been grouped into two categories: “Proficient” (non-UK born residents who speak English well or very well, or who have English as a main language) and “Not proficient” (non-UK born residents who cannot speak English well or at all). These are harmonised estimates derived from the available published tables, not the exact original census categories. Because of differences in source questions and the use of derived estimates in some cases, the figures may not exactly match official published statistics.
All figures relate to people aged 3 and over. Where a United Kingdom total is shown, it is created by summing local authority figures rather than taken directly from a single national published table.
Specific harmonisation decisions by nation:
- England and Wales 2011: Due to lack of publicly available data a proxy approach was used, using a tabulation of year of arrival and language proficiency by local authority to identify the foreign born population. As a result, further breakdowns by country of birth were not possible (e.g., EU and non-EU, Irish and non-Irish EU). Proficient is defined as main language English, or can speak English very well or well; not proficient as cannot speak English well or at all.
- England and Wales 2021: The 2021 Census published English language proficiency data for the foreign-born population using four categories: (1) main language is English; (2) speaks English very well; (3) speaks English well; (4) does not speak English well or at all. For this guide, those in categories 1 to 3 are classified as proficient; and those in category 4 are classified as not proficient.
- Scotland 2011 and 2022: The Scottish Census asked about English language skills using a similar question, but the published categories differ from those in England and Wales. For both census years, those who reported English as their main language or who spoke it very well are classified as proficient; those who reported speaking it well, not well, or not at all are classified as not proficient. Because the Scottish Census question and published categories differ from those in England and Wales, the figures for Scotland may not be directly comparable with those for England and Wales even after harmonisation.
- Northern Ireland 2011 and 2021: The Northern Ireland Census asked about English language proficiency using a question similar to that in England and Wales. For both census years, those who reported English as their main language or who spoke it very well are classified as proficient; those who reported speaking it well, not well, or not at all are classified as not proficient. As with Scotland, differences in question wording and published categories mean that the figures for Northern Ireland may not be directly comparable with those for England and Wales even after harmonisation.
Download the data in this chart for England and Wales in 2011 from NOMIS (LC2105EW) and (LC2803EW)
Download the data in this chart for England and Wales in 2021 from ONS (custom dataset)
Download the data in this chart for Northern Ireland in 2011 from NISRA (DC2223NI)
Download the data in this chart for Northern Ireland in 2021 from the NISRA’s flexible table builder
Download the data in this chart for Scotland in 2011 from NRS (DC2213SC)
Download the data in this chart for Scotland in 2021 from the NRS flexible table builder
Population projections and migration
Predicting future migration levels is extremely difficult because the factors affecting levels of migration are complex, with policy changes being but one. Population projections are not forecasts: they are scenarios based on assumptions about future fertility, mortality and migration, and actual future populations will differ from projected ones. They are nonetheless useful for considering the potential scale and direction of demographic change at the local level.
Figure 16 draws on 2022-based subnational population projections produced by the National Statistical Offices of England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland is not included because 2022-based subnational population projections with components of change were not available at the time of publication.
By 2047, Sunderland is projected to have a natural change and internal migration deficit of -16,251, offset by +24,990 from international migration. Stoke-on-Trent faces -17,238, offset by +21,813. In both cases, international migration more than compensates for the deficit from other components, producing overall population growth. Both are post-industrial cities in the North and Midlands that have experienced significant international migration in recent years.
In April 2026, the ONS released 2024-based projections for the UK as a whole which revised the previous expectation of net migration downwards. For example, the new figures anticipate migration adding 5.0 million people to the UK population between 2026 and 2047, down from a previous estimate of 7.7 million. At the time of publication, local authority level projections using the 2024 base have not yet been released. Although the 2022-based migration projection in Figure 16 are the latest official local figures, they are likely to be revised downwards quite substantially for many areas when next updated.
Figure 16
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Figure 16 presents the components of projected population change — natural change, internal migration and international migration — for local authorities in Great Britain, based on 2022-based subnational population projections. The data bring together projections from three separate national statistics offices: ONS (England), NRS (Scotland) and StatsWales (Wales).
These projections are based on assumptions about future migration levels that may not be realised.
Comparable data for Northern Ireland are unavailable.
Download the data in this chart for England from ONS
Download the data in this chart for Scotland from NRS
Download the data in this chart for Wales from StatsWales
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Georgina Sturge, CJ McKinney and Peter Walsh for their valuable feedback.
Author
References
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