ONS · Long-term international migration, provisional
Emigration
2025 Provisional
642,000people
Emigration was 642,000 people in 2025, down 5.6% (38,000) from 680,000 in 2024.
▼ 5.6% · −38,000 against 2024 (year on year)
ONS estimate
2025
published 21 May 2026
Table 1
row “Emigration”
column “YE Dec 25 P”
cell value 642000
Year ending June 2012 to 2025
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestOne point a year is drawn; the source publishes overlapping year-ending figures, and every one is in the history table and CSVShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value
Joins Emigration, 1964 to 2019 (IPS-based) to the current series. The line is broken where the publisher changed method; the two sides are not directly comparable.
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestOne point a year is drawn; the source publishes overlapping year-ending figures, and every one is in the history table and CSVDashed line: change in coverage or methodShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value
The estimated number of people who left the UK intending to be away for at least 12 months, over a 12-month period.
People often confuse this with
Net migration ≠ ImmigrationImmigration counts people arriving to live in the UK for a year or more. Net migration subtracts the people leaving. Both can be high at once; a fall in net migration can come from more emigration with no change in arrivals.
What this doesn’t measure
People leaving for less than a year, or the total number of British people living abroad.
Important caveat
ONS estimates of long-term international migration are produced from administrative data and are rounded to the nearest thousand. The most recent periods are provisional and are revised in later publications, sometimes by tens or hundreds of thousands, as more data becomes available.
When the way this was measured changed
A series can move because the thing being measured changed, or because the way of measuring it changed. Each change below is marked on the chart, and says what the figures meant on either side of it.
January 1991 · methodology change
Before
Estimates from the International Passenger Survey alone.
After
Long-Term International Migration estimates, which combine the survey with other sources.
ONS: "Pre-1991 estimates are IPS data only. LTIM data are shown from 1991 onwards." Annual estimates before 1991 "use a different methodology and cannot be directly compared with more recent figures".
June 2012 · methodology change
Before
Estimates based on the International Passenger Survey, which ONS says underestimated migration of some groups.
After
Estimates produced from administrative data, which supersede everything previously published for 2012 to 2021.
The current ONS series (from the year ending June 2012) is produced from administrative data and, in ONS's words, "provide[s] a more accurate picture of international migration over this period than our previously published estimates based on the International Passenger Survey (IPS), which underestimated migration of some groups"; it "supersedes ... any time series previously published for the period 2012 to 2021". The two series are not directly comparable.
Revision history
No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.
Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.