Brain drain: Net migration plummets to pre-pandemic low as more Brits flee
Net migration has fallen to a pre-pandemic low, official statistics have shown, as successive Tory and Labour governments have looked to tighten controls on visas.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said net migration dropped to 204,000 in the year ending June 2025, around two-thirds lower than levels a year earlier.
The large fall came as fewer non-EU+ nationals arrived for work and study reasons. The ONS said there were 898,000 people arriving in the UK and 693,000 leaving the country.
It brings net migration down from a previous peak of 944,000 in the year to March 2023, which crystallised the issue of immigration in the eyes of Labour ministers, Westminster strategists and voters across the country.
Voters said reducing immigration was their second top priority in a recent Morning Wire/Freshwater Strategy poll after the cost of living, with home secretary Shabana Mahmood and Prime Minister Keir Starmer rolling out a raft of new controls to clamp down on both legal and illegal migration in recent weeks.
Among the measures announced by the Labour government include extending settled status rights for most migrants to 10 years and raising salary thresholds for skilled workers.
Fall in net migration driven by Brits leaving
But in more concerning news regarding the UK’s simmering “brain drain” battles, levels of emigration have increased to 693,000, up by around 43,000 compared to last year.
Around half of emigration was covered by British nationals in the year to June, with some 252,000 people leaving. This represented a 16 per cent increase on the year.
New ONS migration data has broken down departures of British nationals by age band for the first time.
Some 91 per cent of British nationals leaving the country were of working age, scuppering suggestions that a rise in emigration was driven by pensioners leaving for Europe.
More than half of the outflow was aged between 16 and 24, and 46 per cent aged 25 to 34.
New data is set to trigger alarm bells about the UK’s demographic conundrum due to an ageing population and fears of people ditching the country to boost living standards.
Statisticians at the ONS also showed that work-related immigration had sharply dropped while study-related immigration inched up slightly, along with asylum, in the latest set of estimates.
Indian nationals made up the largest portion of some 670,000 non-EU nationals arriving in the country, mainly for study.
China and Pakistan followed up with the highest contribution to immigration of non-EU nationals, which made up three quarters of immigration.
Chris Philp MP, the shadow home secretary, said: “The days of mass low-skilled immigration must end. Britain cannot keep importing pressure on public services and expect the British people to absorb the cost.
“The fall in today’s figures is driven by the Conservative reforms we put in place on work visas, dependents, and students, but we need to go much further.”