The UK’s latest migration statistics reveal a sharp impact of stricter visa and immigration policies, with Indian students and workers among the largest groups to leave the country in the past year.
According to 2024 data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), approximately 37,000 Indians who came to the UK for education, 18,000 for work, and another 3,000 for other reasons emigrated over the past year. This places Indian nationals at the top of the list of people leaving the UK.
They were followed by Chinese nationals, with 45,000 departing for similar reasons. Other significant emigration figures include Nigerians (16,000), Pakistanis (12,000), and Americans (8,000).
As a result, net migration to the UK fell by 431,000 in 2024 — nearly half of the total recorded the previous year.
“Among people emigrating, Indian was the most common nationality,” the ONS report noted, drawing from UK Home Office data. “Study-related emigration was the most common reason for the five most frequent non-EU (European Union) nationalities to emigrate in YE (year-ending) December 2024. The increase in long-term emigration of non-EU+ nationals who originally arrived on study-related visas is primarily being driven by the large numbers of Indian and Chinese nationals leaving in YE December 2024,” it notes.
With inputs from PTI