According to data released on May 22, 2026, by the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS), net migration into the UK in the 12 months to the end of December 2025 fell nearly half to 171,000, compared with 331,000 in the same period a year earlier. The figure extends a sharp decline from a record peak of 944,000 in 2023.
The ONS said long-term net migration has now almost returned to levels seen before the new immigration system came into effect in early 2021, when the UK post-Brexit transition began and COVID-19 restrictions were still in force.
The drop reflects policy changes implemented from 2024, when the previous Conservative government banned most international students from bringing dependents and raised the salary threshold for skilled worker visas. The current Labour government has tightened further, including ending recruitment of care workers from abroad (the largest driver of labor migration in recent years), raising the salary floor for skilled worker visas, accelerating deportations of illegal immigrants, doubling to 10 years the qualifying period for some workers to gain permanent residence, and making asylum status temporary.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood welcomed progress from the strict policies but said more work remained. “We will always welcome people who contribute to this country and want to build a better life here. But we must restore order and control at the border,” she said, adding that the government’s new skills-based migration policy would reward contribution and end reliance on “cheap foreign labor.”
Employers and economists, meanwhile, have expressed concerns over labor shortages, especially in sectors such as care and hospitality. The think tank British Future noted the UK is “experiencing one of the steepest declines in net migration ever recorded,” but its research shows most people believe the opposite.
Migration — both legal and illegal — has dominated political debate in the UK for more than a decade, with successive governments imposing tighter visa rules and higher salary thresholds. The current government has pledged to go further as it seeks to counter the anti-immigration Reform UK party led by Nigel Farage, which is leading in opinion polls.
