{"id":1354846,"name":"People emigrating from the United Kingdom","unit":"people","createdAt":"2026-11-04T15:49:33.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-11-04T15:49:33.000Z","coverage":"","timespan":"1853-2025","datasetId":8246,"shortUnit":"","columnOrder":0,"shortName":"emigration","catalogPath":"grapher/migration/2026-08-03/uk_migration/uk_migration_flows#emigration","descriptionShort":"Number of people leaving the United Kingdom each year.","descriptionProcessing":"We combined two sources into one series:\n\n- Up to 2011, the data comes from the Bank of England's research dataset \"A millennium of macroeconomic data\" (worksheet A19a), which splices historical passenger statistics and survey-based estimates into a continuous series. We converted the figures from thousands of people to people.\n- From 2012 onward, the data comes from the Office for National Statistics' administrative estimates of long-term international migration. We use the year-ending-December estimates, which cover calendar years.\n\nWe chose 2012 as the junction because it is the first year covered by the administrative estimates, which the Office for National Statistics considers more accurate than the survey-based method used at the end of the Bank of England dataset. That dataset continues to 2016 using the older survey-based estimates; we discarded those years in favor of the administrative figures.","type":"int","patchConfigIdETL":"01a1a740-566d-7420-91e9-17761872f868","datasetName":"Long-run migration flows for the United Kingdom and England","updatePeriodDays":365,"datasetVersion":"2026-08-03","nonRedistributable":false,"display":{"unit":"people","numDecimalPlaces":0},"schemaVersion":2,"processingLevel":"major","presentation":{"topicTagsLinks":["Migration"]},"descriptionKey":"Our World in Data maintains this long-run series on British migration by combining five sources. The Bank of England joined the first four into a continuous series in its research dataset \"A millennium of macroeconomic data\". We added the fifth from the Office for National Statistics.\n\n- **1850s–1963 — ship passenger counts.** Passengers traveling by ship between the United Kingdom and ports outside Europe and the Mediterranean.\n  - The UK Passenger Acts required ship captains to file lists of their passengers, and officials counted everyone on board, whatever their nationality and whatever the reason for their journey — tourists and business travelers as well as migrants.\n  - These statistics miss people moving to or from other European countries, and anyone traveling by air.\n  - Early records of arrivals are less complete than records of departures, and the Bank of England filled a few missing years of arrivals (1856, 1857, 1862, and 1868) by carrying over or averaging neighboring years.\n  - Before 1922, the United Kingdom included all of Ireland. From 1923 onward, the data covers the United Kingdom in its current borders — Great Britain and Northern Ireland.\n  - There is no data for 1939 to 1946, during and just after the Second World War.\n- **1964–1974 — total migration counts.** Migrants — people intending to change their country of residence for at least a year — moving between the United Kingdom and all countries, including the rest of Europe.\n- **1975–1990 — International Passenger Survey.** A sample survey of passengers at UK air and sea ports, run by the Office for National Statistics, using the same definition of a migrant.\n- **1991–2011 — Long-Term International Migration estimates.** The same survey, adjusted by the Office for National Statistics to also count asylum seekers, people who end up staying longer or shorter than they first intended, and migration to and from Northern Ireland.\n- **2012–2025 — estimates based on administrative records.** The Office for National Statistics' current estimates, built mainly from visa, border, and registration records rather than surveys.\n  - These replaced the survey-based estimates as the official measure of UK migration, and are considerably higher: the survey undercounted people moving in both directions.\n  - The figures for recent years are provisional. The Office for National Statistics classifies its administrative estimates as official statistics in development, and revises them — sometimes substantially — as more data becomes available.\n  - The source also changed how it counts British nationals in mid-2021: its earlier figures for them still drew on survey data, adjusted against the census.\n\nBecause these sources measure different things, the series shifts level where they join. In 1964, the older passenger count gives 245,000 arrivals while the newer migrant count gives 211,000. In 1991, the unadjusted survey gives 255,000 immigrants while the adjusted estimate gives 329,000. In 2012, the survey-based estimate gives 498,000 immigrants while the administrative estimate gives 643,000.","dimensions":{"years":{"values":[{"id":1853},{"id":1854},{"id":1855},{"id":1856},{"id":1857},{"id":1858},{"id":1859},{"id":1860},{"id":1861},{"id":1862},{"id":1863},{"id":1864},{"id":1865},{"id":1866},{"id":1867},{"id":1868},{"id":1869},{"id":1870},{"id":1871},{"id":1872},{"id":1873},{"id":1874},{"id":1875},{"id":1876},{"id":1877},{"id":1878},{"id":1879},{"id":1880},{"id":1881},{"id":1882},{"id":1883},{"id":1884},{"id":1885},{"id":1886},{"id":1887},{"id":1888},{"id":1889},{"id":1890},{"id":1891},{"id":1892},{"id":1893},{"id":1894},{"id":1895},{"id":1896},{"id":1897},{"id":1898},{"id":1899},{"id":1900},{"id":1901},{"id":1902},{"id":1903},{"id":1904},{"id":1905},{"id":1906},{"id":1907},{"id":1908},{"id":1909},{"id":1910},{"id":1911},{"id":1912},{"id":1913},{"id":1914},{"id":1915},{"id":1916},{"id":1917},{"id":1918},{"id":1919},{"id":1920},{"id":1921},{"id":1922},{"id":1923},{"id":1924},{"id":1925},{"id":1926},{"id":1927},{"id":1928},{"id":1929},{"id":1930},{"id":1931},{"id":1932},{"id":1933},{"id":1934},{"id":1935},{"id":1936},{"id":1937},{"id":1938},{"id":1947},{"id":1948},{"id":1949},{"id":1950},{"id":1951},{"id":1952},{"id":1953},{"id":1954},{"id":1955},{"id":1956},{"id":1957},{"id":1958},{"id":1959},{"id":1960},{"id":1961},{"id":1962},{"id":1963},{"id":1964},{"id":1965},{"id":1966},{"id":1967},{"id":1968},{"id":1969},{"id":1970},{"id":1971},{"id":1972},{"id":1973},{"id":1974},{"id":1975},{"id":1976},{"id":1977},{"id":1978},{"id":1979},{"id":1980},{"id":1981},{"id":1982},{"id":1983},{"id":1984},{"id":1985},{"id":1986},{"id":1987},{"id":1988},{"id":1989},{"id":1990},{"id":1991},{"id":1992},{"id":1993},{"id":1994},{"id":1995},{"id":1996},{"id":1997},{"id":1998},{"id":1999},{"id":2000},{"id":2001},{"id":2002},{"id":2003},{"id":2004},{"id":2005},{"id":2006},{"id":2007},{"id":2008},{"id":2009},{"id":2010},{"id":2011},{"id":2012},{"id":2013},{"id":2014},{"id":2015},{"id":2016},{"id":2017},{"id":2018},{"id":2019},{"id":2020},{"id":2021},{"id":2022},{"id":2023},{"id":2024},{"id":2025}]},"entities":{"values":[{"id":1,"name":"United Kingdom","code":"GBR"}]}},"origins":[{"id":28334,"title":"A millennium of macroeconomic data for the UK","description":"A research dataset compiled by Bank of England staff, bringing together historical macroeconomic and financial statistics for the United Kingdom — national accounts, population, migration, money and credit, fiscal data, interest rates, exchange rates, trade, and labor market data. Some series reach back to the 13th century, with a few benchmark estimates for 1086.\n\nThe dataset splices together estimates from the academic literature, historical administrative records, and official statistics into continuous long-run series, and documents the underlying sources and assumptions in each worksheet. The Bank describes it as a \"best endeavours\" research resource rather than official Bank of England data or National Statistics.\n\nVersion 3.1 was finalized on 30 April 2017 and extended in September and October 2017, with corrections to the historical data made in August 2018 and August 2024. It covers data up to 2016.","producer":"Bank of England","citationFull":"Thomas, R and Dimsdale, N (2017) \"A Millennium of UK Data\", Bank of England OBRA dataset, http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/research/Pages/onebank/threecenturies.aspx\n\nThe Bank of England asks users to also cite the original sources of individual series. The migration series used by Our World in Data (worksheet A19a) draws on: Mitchell, B. R. (1988). British Historical Statistics. Cambridge University Press; and the Office for National Statistics (International Passenger Survey and Long-Term International Migration estimates).","versionProducer":"Version 3.1","urlMain":"https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/research-datasets","urlDownload":"https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/statistics/research-datasets/a-millennium-of-macroeconomic-data-for-the-uk.xlsx","dateAccessed":"2026-07-29","datePublished":"2017-04-30","license":{"url":"https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/legal","name":"© Bank of England"}},{"id":28335,"title":"Long-term international migration, provisional","description":"Estimates of long-term international immigration, emigration, and net migration for the United Kingdom, published by the Office for National Statistics. A long-term migrant is someone who changes their country of usual residence for at least 12 months.\n\nThe ONS builds these estimates mainly from administrative records — visa and border data from the Home Office, and National Insurance registrations — rather than surveys. They replaced the survey-based estimates as the official measure of UK migration, and cover rolling 12-month periods from the year ending June 2012 onward. The ONS classifies them as official statistics in development: recent periods are provisional and revised as more data becomes available.","producer":"UK Office for National Statistics","citationFull":"Office for National Statistics (2026). Long-term international migration, provisional: year ending December 2025. Released 21 May 2026.","versionProducer":"year ending December 2025","urlMain":"https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/datasets/longterminternationalimmigrationemigrationandnetmigrationflowsprovisional","urlDownload":"https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/datasets/longterminternationalimmigrationemigrationandnetmigrationflowsprovisional/yearendingdecember2025/may2026publicationspreadsheet.xlsx","dateAccessed":"2026-08-03","datePublished":"2026-05-21","license":{"url":"https://www.ons.gov.uk/help/termsandconditions","name":"Open Government Licence v3.0"}}]}