Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have plans to exclude international students from the net migration statistics.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician

The Earl of Clancarty

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

4 March 2025

Dear Lord Clancarty,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking whether there are any plans to exclude international students from the net migration statistics (HL5079).

We are aware of stakeholder interest in an alternative measure of net international migration excluding students and are currently seeking user feedback on the requirement for this, as well as views on proposed options for how this could be estimated. We expect to report on the outcome of this process in early May 2025.

Currently, international students are included in official estimates of immigration if they meet the UN definition of a long-term international migrant, by residing in the UK for 12 months or more. Students staying long-term contribute to population change, as well as to society and the economy more broadly. Therefore, it is important to include them in the migration estimates as these feed into the calculation of official population estimates. Additionally, not all international students emigrate at the end of their studies, with many transferring into work or remaining in the UK for family or other reasons. Of the non-EU+ nationals who arrived in the UK on a study-related visa in the year ending June 2021, 48% had transitioned onto a different visa type by year ending June 2024.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

https://data.un.org/Glossary.aspx?q=long-term%20migrant