FOI reference: FOI-2025-3141
You asked
I wish to make an FOI request. I noted that Migration Observatory (MO) have been citing nationality and country of birth figures (albeit by region) from the 2024 Annual Population Survey.
I would be grateful if you could supply within 20 work days, all population estimates from the 2024 Annual Population Survey by nationality and country of birth (if necessary, by global region is sufficient as per the MO useage: India, North America, South Asia excluding India and so forth), and population estimates for ages 16–64 as well.
We said
Thank you for your request.
As noted in a request last year (UK population by country of birth and nationality - Office for National Statistics), the Office for National Statistics' (ONS) previous series of population estimates by country of birth and nationality, based on data from the Annual Population Survey (APS) and Labour Force Survey (LFS), was discontinued in October 2022 due to underlying data issues. In brief, the population totals used for the APS use projected growth rates from Real Time Information (RTI) data for UK, EU and non-EU populations based on 2021 patterns, meaning that it does not take into account changes in migration, birth rates, death rates, and so on since June 2021.
Although we no longer routinely publish this information, nationality and country of birth information is still recorded and is available to users of the survey data: grouped in the anonymised End User Licence datasets provided to the UK Data Service; and as individual countries in the datasets available under Secure Access conditions at the ONS Secure Research Service facilities. Organisations with access to this data may use and publish estimates based on their own research.
Please see this previously published table for a bespoke user request for the calendar year 2024 based on the categories in End User Licence datasets, except that India has been assigned its own category, which you may find useful.
Any other bespoke outputs can be ordered from our Social Surveys Customer Service team. Such services are subject to legal frameworks, resources and agreement of costs. If you would like to request this bespoke dataset, please contact socialsurveys@ons.gov.uk to discuss your enquiry further.
Please note:
Charges may apply for this work which would be subject to our charging policy.
The APS sample size for some of the breakdowns you require maybe very small and may therefore be subject to disclosure control measures.
- As mentioned above, the weights for the APS are not yet based on latest available population estimates. The next re-weighting exercise is planned for 2026.
As this information is reasonably accessible via another route, even if only accessible on payment, Section 21(2)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies.