International migrants to the UK by age and sex

FOI reference: FOI-2024-1959

You asked

How many people who currently live in the UK are international migrants (or migrated to the UK from overseas)?

Please can I have the annual stats from the last two years? (2022-2023 and 2024 if possible).

Please can I have a breakdown of the age of group, particularly the number of children (aged 0-18) and young people (aged12-18).

Can I get a breakdown of the gender of the group for the same two aged groups?

We said

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request.  

Regarding annual statistics on the number of people who migrated to the UK, please see our long term international flows. The latest information covers year ending June 2023. You can also find the previous editions of the dataset. Please note, this analysis does not provide breakdowns by age and sex. 

For estimates of people of the non-UK born population that currently live in the UK, the best and most recent source is Census 2021. 

The UK censuses are run separately by each National Statistics Office  

• Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (NISRA),  

• National Records of Scotland (NRS), and the  

• Office for National Statistics (ONS) for both England and Wales  

We hold census data for England and Wales, rather than the UK as a whole. 

With regards to UK Census data, the publication of UK Census 2021 and 2022 outputs is dependent on the availability of Scotland's Census 2022 data. 

As you have requested a breakdown of migrants by age and sex, we have provided detailed census migration data, for England and Wales, using the Nomis website (a service run on behalf of the ONS by Durham University). Navigation instructions for NOMIS are provided in the associated download. 

The following tables are the closest approximation we can produce from standard Census 2021 dataset, which incorporates your specific age bands of the number of children (aged 0-18) and young people (aged12-18) combined with the migration data requested: 

• MIG001EW - Migration by sex and age 

• MIG014EW - Migration by age 

As these do not meet your exact requirements, further analysis can be created via our commissioned table service. These services are subject to disclosure controls, resources, legal frameworks, and an agreement of costs. Please see ONS' Publication scheme and charging rates for more detail. To discuss this further, please contact Pop.Info@ons.gov.uk.