FOI reference: FOI-2025-2688
You asked
I am writing to you to kindly request, under the Freedom of Information Act, information regarding the presence of Mexican Citizens in the UK.
I would like to have the information on the following questions:
1) How many Mexican Citizens are currently living in the UK? 2022-2025
2) Of that total how many are here with a Student Visa, how many with a Work Visa, and how many with British citizenship?
3) Are there any Mexican citizens living illegally in the UK? If so, how many?
4) How many Mexicans citizens have been living in the UK since 2010?
We said
Thank you for your freedom of information request.
Census 2021 is currently our best estimate of how many Mexican citizens there are in England and Wales. Using the create a custom dataset tool, I can confirm that the number of people whose country of birth was Mexican in Census 2021 was 13,176.
While this source provides the best picture of society at a moment in time, we acknowledge that there is a need for more timely and frequent statistics at a consistent level of quality. Provisional estimates for the year ending June 2022, produced by rolling forward Census 2021 estimates and accounting for population change, were published in our International migration research, progress update: November 2022 article.
We do not hold information on how many Mexicans are here on a student visa, how many with a work visa, and how many with British citizenship. Nor can we provide accurate data on how many Mexicans have been living here since 2010, as we do not track an individual's movements, so we cannot know if the same person that has arrived, or has left. The Home Office may be best placed to advise, they can be contacted at foirequests@homeoffice.gov.uk.
It is not possible to know the exact size of the irregular population, or the number entering irregularly, and so there are not any official estimates for this number. However, the Home Office has produced information relating to irregular migration to the UK, year ending March 2024 on their website.