FOI reference: FOI-2025-3289
You asked
I am writing in relation to the ONS article 'Implementing new methods for estimating the international migration of British nationals: progress update (November 2025)'. Figure 7 in this release presents the updated emigration estimates for British nationals based on the new RAPID methodology.
I would be grateful if you could provide the following:
1. Existence and availability of demographic or socioeconomic breakdowns
Please confirm whether ONS holds any recorded data that describe the age, income, or wealth characteristics of British nationals who emigrated, corresponding to the emigration estimates presented in Figure 7. In particular:
- Any age-breakdowns of emigrating British nationals (e.g., single year of age or age bands), for the years included in the Figure 7 estimates;
- Any income- or earnings-related characteristics of emigrants derived from RAPID or linked administrative sources (for example PAYE or Self Assessment data);
- Any wealth- or asset-related information linked to emigrants (for example through RAPID components or linkages to other sources such as the Wealth and Assets Survey).
If such data exist, please provide the relevant tables or datasets in CSV or XLSX format, together with any accompanying metadata or data dictionary needed to interpret the variables.
2. Methodological or quality-assurance material
If ONS has produced any internal analysis, quality-assurance work, or methodological documentation that describes or uses age, income, or wealth characteristics of British nationals who emigrated, please provide these materials in PDF or DOCX format.
This includes any recorded work undertaken during the development of the RAPID-based emigration estimates that examined:
- age profiles of emigrants,
- income- or earnings-based characteristics, or
- any assessment of the feasibility of producing socioeconomic breakdowns.
3. Recorded reasons for absence of such characteristics
If ONS does not hold disclosable data on age, income, or wealth characteristics of British nationals who emigrated, please provide any recorded information that explains:
- whether these characteristics were explored during development of the new methodology;
- any decisions or constraints recorded regarding why such breakdowns were not included in the published estimates;
- any feasibility or quality-concern assessments relating to producing age or socioeconomic profiles of emigrants.
4. Internal correspondence
Please provide any internal correspondence from the last year that specifically discusses the availability, feasibility, or potential publication of age, income, or wealth characteristics of British nationals who emigrated, as counted in the Figure 7 estimates.
To assist with the cost limit, please restrict the search to emails or memos held by the teams responsible for international migration statistics (including RAPID). Suggested search terms: "Figure 7", "British nationals", "emigration", "age", "income", "earnings", "wealth", "RAPID", "characteristics", "breakdown".
We said
Thank you for your request.
1. Existence and availability of demographic or socioeconomic breakdowns\ For the years included in Figure 7, we hold age-related information only. The coverage adjustment published in Implementing new methods for estimating the international migration of British nationals: progress update (November 2025) includes this. We are considering how we could publish age breakdowns in the future.
The publication Long-term international migration, provisional: year ending June 2025 published after the FOI request included the following analysis:
"The vast majority (91%) of British nationals who left the UK long term in YE March 2025 were of working age (between 16 and 64 years). Around 8% were children (under 16 years) and fewer than 1% were aged 65 years or over."
We have not researched income- or earnings-related characteristics of emigrants, nor wealth- or asset-related information linked to emigrants.
2. Methodological or quality-assurance material\ No additional quality-assurance work was undertaken on age because RAPID records age with very high accuracy, based on birth records and personal identification (including visa documentation for EU nationals). No quality work or feasibility assessments were carried out for income, earnings, or wealth characteristics, as these were not part of the research scope.
3. Recorded reasons for absence of such characteristics
Income and wealth were not considered as the focus of the research was on producing a high-level estimate for British nationals migration as per the identified user need.
4. Internal correspondence
To collate all correspondence from the last year discussing the availability, feasibility, or publication of age, income, or wealth characteristics, we would need to search across at least 11 teams and review all working-level communications. This would involve interrogating each email returned from a wide range of search terms to determine relevance. We anticipate the number of email files returned would be significant.
The cost limit for replying to a Freedom of Information request is £600 or 24 hours' work to search for, extract, and collate the requested information. In our view, we would need to exceed this to action your request.
Therefore, Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is engaged, whereby a public authority is not obliged to answer a request if the cost of complying would exceed the appropriate limit.
We would therefore advise limiting the scope of your request so that we can answer within the cost limit. This could be done by focusing on a particular decision or narrowing the timeframe to reduce the number of emails in scope.