About 52,000 Nigerians immigrated to the United Kingdom in the year ending December 2024, even as overall net migration to the country dropped by nearly 50%, according to new data released by the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Nigerians were among the top non-EU+ nationals entering the UK last year, with most arrivals linked to work and study. 27,000 Nigerians arrived in the UK on work-related visas, 22,000 to study, and 3,000 under other immigration categories.
The figures place Nigeria among the highest contributors to non-EU+ migration, alongside India, Pakistan, and China.
“For YE December 2024, Indian was the most common non-EU+ nationality to immigrate to the UK. It also shows that for Indian, Pakistani and Nigerian nationals, work- and study-related immigration estimates were fairly similar,” the ONS report noted.
“For Chinese nationals, study-related immigration was far more common (53,000 for study-related and 5,000 for work-related). Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, and Nigerian are regularly among the top five most frequent non-EU+ nationalities for long-term immigration.”
The demographic breakdown for non-EU+ immigrants in 2024 shows that around 52% were male and 48% female.
“The majority (83%) of non-EU+ nationals who came to live in the UK long term in YE December 2024 were of working age (between 16 and 64 years). Around 16% were children (under 16 years) and around 1% were aged 65 years or over.”
Meanwhile, overall net migration to the UK nearly halved year-on-year. ONS estimates that long-term net migration is down by almost 50%.
The number of people immigrating minus the number of people emigrating is provisionally estimated to be 431,000 in the year ending (YE) December 2024, compared with 860,000 a year earlier, it added.
According to ONS, this change is driven by a decrease in immigration from non-EU+ nationals, where we are seeing reductions in people arriving on work- and study-related visas, and an increase in emigration over the 12 months to December 2024, especially people leaving who originally came on study visas once pandemic travel restrictions to the UK were eased.
This is the biggest calendar-year drop since the early stages of the pandemic, when net migration fell from 184,000 in the year ending December 2019 to 93,000 in the year ending December 2020, the Guardian UK reported.
Among non-EU+ nationals, immigration for work (main applicants) saw the largest numerical drop, falling by 108,000, a 49% decrease from the previous year, while study-related immigration (main applicants) declined by 17%.
It added that there was an 86% (105,000) reduction in the number of study dependents, the largest percentage decrease, and a 35% (81,000) decrease in the number of work dependents.