The peak level of net migration was higher than previously thought, at 944,000 in 2023, official data shows.
But vastly more Britons are emigrating leaving figures down over a longer period, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures said.
Revisions to ONS data showed net migration – the difference between the number of migrants coming to live long-term in Britain minus the number of people emigrating – was 944,000 in the year to March 2023.
Previous figures had indicated the highest point was 906,000 in the year ending June 2023.
But in a dramatic development, hundreds of thousands more British citizens are turning their backs on this country and going to live abroad.
Over a four year period from 2021 to 2024, 344,000 more British nationals emigrated than previously thought.
Passengers at the UK Border gates at Heathrow airport
Last year alone the number of Brits leaving the country was 257,000, far higher than the 77,000 the ONS had previously estimated.
‘Our new methods cause an upward revision in our British nationals emigration estimate over the past few years,’ an ONS spokesman said.
The changes means that net migration over the four year period is now put at 97,000 lower than earlier estimates had said.
All the revisions are due to the ONS improving its methods by using government data on the tax and benefits system to calculate its estimates, rather than relying on a survey of passengers at ports and airports.
Statisticians said there had been a ‘sharper fall’ in net migration since the peak was hit in 2023.
In May this year the ONS published estimates showing net migration was 431,000 in 2024 but today’s latest data revised that downwards to 345,000.
The data indicated that tough changes to the immigration system brought in by then Tory home secretary Sir James Cleverly in spring 2024 had a much larger effect than previously thought.
Tory home secretary Sir James Cleverly introduced measures to cut immigration levels in spring 2024 which had a more dramatic effect than previously thought, official new data shows
If the latest data had been available at the time of last year’s general election the Conservatives would have been able to claim much greater success in tackling the previous peak of net migration.
