Migration and asylum: the official figures

Immigration system statistics · year ending March 2026

What the official figures cover, and what they do not

In the year ending March 2026, the Home Office granted 728,070 entry clearance visas across the three main non-visit routes (work, study and family), a fall of 44 per cent from the combined calendar year peak of 1,297,963 in 2023. In the same period 93,525 people claimed asylum in the UK, 128,300 people received an initial decision (a grant rate of 39 per cent for main applicants, down from 49 per cent the previous year), and 48,758 people were awaiting an initial decision at the end of the period. Separately, the Office for National Statistics estimates UK net migration at 171,000 for the year ending December 2025, down from 331,000 the year before.

Visas

Entry clearance visas granted, by route

Work, study and family visas are the three main non-visit routes into the UK. Visitor visas (over 2.2 million in the year ending March 2026) and short term routes are excluded from the totals below because they do not grant long term residence. Figures are entry clearance visas granted (people, not applications), UK wide.

Combined work, study and family visas peaked in calendar year 2023 at 1,297,963 and have fallen 44 per cent to the year ending March 2026. Study visas alone peaked a year earlier, in 2022, at 623,698. Source: Home Office table Vis_01, checked directly against table Vis_02 (applications and outcomes).

Asylum

Claims, decisions and the backlog

Asylum applicants are a small subset of people arriving in or coming to the UK. The figures below cover the whole pipeline: people claiming asylum, the initial decisions made on those claims, and the backlog of people still waiting for a first decision.

'People receiving initial decisions' and the grants/refusals that make it up cover main applicants and dependants together. The published 'grant rate at initial decision' is calculated by the Home Office on main applicants only and excludes withdrawals and administrative outcomes, so it will not exactly match grants divided by decisions above; both are shown as published, not recalculated. Source: Home Office tables Asy_00a and Asy_03a.

Returns

Returns and enforced removals

Returns from the UK cover everyone who left, for any immigration reason, not only people who had claimed asylum. The asylum related figures below are a subset of the totals.

39,007 people returned from the UK in the year ending March 2026 (9,723 enforced, 29,284 voluntary), of whom 11,918 were asylum related. Source: Home Office tables Ret_01 and Ret_05.

Asylum accommodation

Asylum seekers in receipt of support, including hotels

People with an open asylum claim who would otherwise be destitute can receive Home Office support, most commonly housing. The figures below are a snapshot at the end of the period, not a flow over the year.

97,519 asylum seekers were in receipt of Home Office support at the end of March 2026, of whom 20,885 (21.4 per cent) were in hotel accommodation, down from 32,326 a year earlier. Source: Home Office tables Asy_00a and Asy_09a.

Small boat arrivals

People arriving on small boats across the Channel

This series counts arrivals by the date people were detected crossing the Channel, from the Home Office's operational small boats data. It is provisional and may differ from the finalised asylum claims by route of entry statistics below, which count by the date of the asylum claim, not the date of arrival.

205,617 people have arrived on small boats since data collection began in 2018, including 13,007 so far in 2026 as of 23 July 2026. This is a different count, on a different basis, to the 38,980 asylum claims linked to small boat arrivals in the asylum claims by route of entry table for the year ending March 2026: that table uses the date of the asylum claim, and undergoes fuller quality assurance as finalised official statistics, while this arrivals series is provisional operational data. Source: Home Office 'Small boat activity in the English Channel', table SB_01.

Net migration · a different publisher, a different measure

ONS long term international migration

Net migration is published by the Office for National Statistics, not the Home Office, and is built from a different methodology (population survey and administrative data modelling, covering everyone who moves for 12 months or more, for any reason). It should not be compared directly, or added, to the Home Office visa or asylum figures above.

UK net migration was 171,000 in the year ending December 2025 (provisional), down from 331,000 the year before and from a recorded peak of 944,000 in the year ending March 2023 period. This is total immigration (moving to the UK for 12 months or more, from 813,000) minus total emigration (642,000), covering all nationalities and all reasons for migration. Source: ONS Long-term International Migration, provisional.

Cost

What the Home Office spent on asylum support, resettlement and accommodation

This is the only cost figure on this page verified against a primary official document. It is the whole 'Asylum Support, Resettlement and Accommodation' business group within the Home Office, not accommodation or hotels alone, and it is not a cost per person.

Home Office Resource DEL spending on the Asylum Support, Resettlement and Accommodation business group was £4.18 billion in 2025-26, against a budget of £4.33 billion, down from £4.51 billion in 2024-25 and £5.42 billion in 2023-24. This business group also covers resettlement schemes and administration, not accommodation alone, and this is UK government departmental spending, not a per person cost. Source: Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 2025 to 2026.

Open questions

What the published data does not settle