Over 500 a day gained through migration to the UK

In 2005, 185,000 more people entered than left the United Kingdom for at least a year, according to new Total International Migration (TIM) estimates published today in the Total International Migration: First Release by the Office for National Statistics.

This is equivalent, on average, to adding 500 people a day to the UK population. This net inflow was lower than the estimate in 2004, but was still higher than all other years since the method to estimate TIM began in 1991.

The estimated 380,000 people leaving the UK in 2005 sustained the level of high out-migration seen in recent years. This is equivalent, on average, to over 1,000 people a day leaving the UK to live abroad, over half of whom were British citizens.

The estimated number of people arriving to live in the UK for at least a year was 565,000 in 2005, an average of over 1,500 a day. While lower than the estimate in 2004, allowing for margins of error, this still continued the overall trend of high in-migration into the UK that began in the late 1990s.