Did UK migration rise or fall last year?
Home Office reveals the numbers who came in and left Britain last year, to show a fall in those coming into UK
The Home Office has released data showing migration figures in and out of the UK for 2025, with the situation set to affect Labour's performance in opinion polls.
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An Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiled report, released on Thursday, showed the initial impacts of the reforms brought in by the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
"There is still work to do," she said on the back of the study, which was welcomed by her party's leadership.
“That is why I am introducing a skills-based migration system that rewards contribution and ends Britain’s reliance on cheap overseas workers.”
Here is the breakdown of the data.
What are the UK's in / out net migration figures?
Net migration fell to 171,000 in the 12 months to December 2025 - a fall of 48% from the 331,000 in 2024 and the peak of 944,000 in 2023.
Last year, an estimated 813,000 people immigrated to the UK, while 642,000 emigrated, the Home Office has said.
The 2025 figure represents the steepest decline since 2021 and, for non-COVID-19 years, in the UK since 2012, and has been hailed as a policy win for Sir Keir Starmer.
There has also been a 35% year-on-year fall to 20,885 people living in government asylum hotels at the end of March.
LBC's political editor Natasha Clark said: "On the face of it, this is good news. Sir Keir has welcomed the fall and said there is more to do, saying his skills-based system is bearing fruit.
"It ties into the political climate we are seeing. Reform has always been towards immigration, but we are seeing in the polls that people are responding to this."
Ben Brindle, a researcher at the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, told the Guardian: “Migration is down now, but the economic impacts depend more on who is – or is no longer – migrating than how many.
“Today’s data illustrate a challenge the government faces, namely that the categories of migration it would most like to reduce are the ones least amenable to policy.
"As a result, migration of groups that make positive or broadly neutral economic impacts – such as skilled workers and partners of students – is down, while asylum-related migration remains high.”