Should I move there?
Rankings Compare Sources Migration About

🇬🇧 Migration in the United Kingdom: where do people move to and from?

Updated June 2026 · ~4 min read

The UK has one of the world's largest diasporas and is, at the same time, one of the top global destinations for immigrants. Here's where British people emigrate to and where the UK's immigrants come from, using official figures from the ONS and UN DESA.

10.7M
Foreign-born residents in the UK
4.8M
British people living abroad (diaspora)

Where do British people move to?

Top destinations by number of British people living there:

1
🇦🇺Australia
1,100,000
2
🇺🇸United States
912,000
3
🇨🇦Canada
432,000
4
🇪🇸Spain
295,000
5
🇮🇪Ireland
280,000
6
🇳🇿New Zealand
215,000
7
🇫🇷France
190,000
8
🇵🇱Poland
185,000
9
🇩🇪Germany
150,000
10
🇿🇦South Africa
130,000

Where do the UK's immigrants come from?

Top countries of origin for immigrants living in the UK:

1
🇮🇳India
920,000
2
🇵🇱Poland
743,000
3
🇵🇰Pakistan
624,000
4
🇷🇴Romania
539,000
5
🇮🇪Ireland
325,000
6
🇩🇪Germany
300,000
7
🇮🇹Italy
277,000
8
🇫🇷France
264,000
9
🇱🇹Lithuania
213,000
10
🇵🇹Portugal
206,000
The non-UK-born population of England and Wales rose by 2.5 million between the 2011 and 2021 censuses, reaching 10.0 million (16.8% of residents) - roughly one in six people.Source: ONS Census 2021, International migration, England and Wales
Romania was the fastest-growing country of birth among UK immigrants, surging 576% (by 459,000 people) between 2011 and 2021 after working restrictions were lifted in 2014.Source: ONS Census 2021, International migration, England and Wales
Just over half of all British-born people living abroad reside in only three countries - Australia (23%), the United States (19%) and Canada (9%) - with Australia alone home to an estimated 1.1 million Britons.Source: UN DESA International Migrant Stock, via ONS 'UK emigration explained' (2026)
Thinking of moving to or from the United Kingdom? Compare it with 17 other countries on spending power, safety, climate and time off →

Sources

ONS - Census 2021 (population by country of birth) and 'UK emigration explained' (2026). UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024.

Note: inbound and outbound figures are drawn from different official datasets and measured in different ways (e.g. foreign-born residents vs. citizens registered abroad), so the two directions are not strictly symmetric.