There are just under 10 million immigrants living in the UK, roughly 15% of the total population, based on the latest available official estimates.

What “immigrants in the UK” means

When people ask “how many immigrants are in the UK?” they usually mean the foreign‑born population : people who were born outside the UK, whether or not they now hold British citizenship.

  • This is different from annual immigration , which counts how many people move to the UK in a given year.
  • It also differs from net migration , which is immigration minus emigration.

Latest estimates

The UK does not publish a single “live” counter of all immigrants, but several official and research bodies give consistent ballpark figures.

  • The Migration Observatory, using Office for National Statistics (ONS) data, reports that there are a little under 10 million foreign‑born people resident in the UK.
  • That is about 15% of the UK population , up from around 9% in the mid‑2000s, showing a steady long‑term rise.
  • The foreign‑born share is higher in big cities (especially London) and lower in many rural or smaller town areas.

These figures are estimates, based on surveys and administrative data, and are periodically revised, but they give a solid order of magnitude.

Recent immigration flows (for context)

While your question is about how many immigrants live in the UK, current politics and news often focus on annual inflows and net migration.

  • Provisional ONS data show that about 898,000 people immigrated to the UK in the year ending June 2025.
  • Over the same period, emigration was lower, leaving net migration (inflow minus outflow) at around 200,000 (roughly 204,000), much reduced from the record highs in 2022–2023.
  • In the peak period (year ending March or June 2023), net migration was close to 900,000 , driven by post‑pandemic recovery, student visas, work routes, and schemes for Ukrainians and Hong Kongers.

These yearly numbers change much faster than the size of the settled foreign‑born population, which moves more gradually.

Why the numbers are debated

Immigration is a trending political topic and heavily discussed on forums, talk shows, and in the run‑up to elections.

  • Different sides highlight different aspects: pressure on housing and services, economic contributions, labour shortages, or demographic ageing.
  • Some media and online discussions mix up “people arriving this year” with “total immigrants in the country” , which can make the situation sound larger or smaller than it is.

A simple way to keep it straight is:

Around 10 million people in the UK are foreign‑born (about 15% of the population), and hundreds of thousands move in and out each year, with net migration currently a bit over 200,000 on the most recent data.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.