Migration by age and sex from 2018 to 2023

Reference: FOI-2024-1767

You asked

• How many UK nationals have emigrated from the UK? Please can I have the annual stats from 2018 up to and including 2023.
• Please can I have breakdown of the age group of UK nationals emigrating from the country from 2018 to 2023. I would particularly like to know the number of UK nationals aged 18-30 that have emigrated from the country in each of the respective years also.
• Can I get a breakdown of the gender of those emigrating and the country to which they are emigrating.

We said

Thank you for your freedom of information request.

On 23 November ONS released Long-term international immigration, emigration and net migration flows, provisional. Table 1 shows Long-term international migration into and out of the UK by nationality including 2018 to 2023. Estimates are generated for British, EU and non-EU nationals.

Our previously published estimates of migration based on the IPS included breakdowns by age and sex:

Long-term international migration 2.07, age and sex, UK and England and Wales (Discontinued after 2019) - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk).

And, by sex and age by country of next residence: IPS citizenship group by sex and age by country of last or next residence.

In March 2020, the IPS was suspended because of the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In response, we have accelerated our work to transform how migration is measured and are moving towards producing administrative data-based migration estimates, supported by statistical modelling. While the IPS resumed operation in January 2021, the decision was taken and announced in the August 2020 Migration Statistics Quarterly Report (MSQR) that going forward we would continue to focus on developing methods for measuring international migration using administrative data and statistical modelling, given the limitations of the IPS. 

Traditionally, the International Passenger Survey (IPS) was the main source for estimating international migration to and from the UK. However, we had long acknowledged that the IPS had been stretched beyond its original purpose and that we needed to consider all available sources to understand international migration. Recent analysis comparing IPS estimates against 2011 Census and 2021 Census further demonstrated some of the longstanding quality concerns. While IPS remains our current source for British migration, our intention is to move towards a new data and methods for the estimates to be published in November 2024.

The requested information for 2021 to 2023 has been provided in the associated download. Please read all notes in the spreadsheet and the following text carefully prior to viewing this data.

The more detailed statistics, by age and sex, have small samples sizes, and therefore contain a high degree of uncertainty. We strongly urge caution regarding the use of these statistics. The ONS does not consider them of sufficient quality to inform or make decisions from. Our ambition is provide more detailed breakdowns, by age and sex as well as other characteristics, once a new method is embedded.