UK Net Migration Falls To Half In 2024, Compared To Previous Year

The UK's net migration figures have seen a significant decline, dropping to 431,000, nearly half of the 860,000 recorded in the year to December 2024. This sharp decrease is attributed to reduced immigration from non-EU countries for work and study visas, as well as an increase in emigration from the UK. 

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), a large number of international students who originally came to the UK before the Covid-19 travel restrictions were eased have also left the country.

The decline in net migration has been welcomed by the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, who stated that "the 300,000 drop in net migration since the election is important and welcome after the figures quadrupled to nearly a million in the last parliament." 

However, the former Conservative Home Secretary James Cleverly claimed that the drop is due to the visa rule changes he implemented, saying "this drop is because of the visa rule changes that I put in place."

The restrictions introduced by the Conservative government, including a ban on foreign students and care workers bringing dependants with them to the UK, a doubling of the minimum salary threshold needed for work visas to £38,700, and an increase in the minimum income required for British residents to bring family members to join them to £29,000, have contributed to the decline. 

Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, noted that the record fall in net migration was made possible by unusually high migration after Brexit.

"The record-breaking decline in net migration was possible primarily because numbers had previously been so high," Sumption said. "UK migration patterns in 2023 were very unusual, with unexpectedly large numbers of visas for care workers, international students, and their family members. This made it easier for the government at that time to bring down the numbers." Sumption also predicted that the economic impact of the decline would be negligible, stating that "the economic impact of this decline is actually likely to be relatively small."

The issue of net migration has become an important electoral battleground, with concerns among voters about the NHS, housing, and the small boats crisis in the Channel. Labour has hardened its position on immigration, with Keir Starmer pledging to reduce net migration before the next election. However, Starmer's comments about the UK risking becoming an "island of strangers" without tough new policies have been criticised by some politicians, who drew comparisons to Enoch Powell's notorious "rivers of blood" speech.