UK unemployment rates by nationality 2000 to 2019

FOI Ref: FOI/2022/4005

You asked​

Please supply the following information:

• The percentage of unemployed immigrants out of the general unemployment in each year in each UK region from 2000 to 2019.

• The number of unemployed immigrants in each region from 2000 to 2019 and what is the number of unemployed people in general in each region in each year between those years.

To clarify, by region, the intention is the 12 regions (North East, North West, East Midlands, West Midlands, London, Wales, Northern Ireland, etc).

We said

Thank you for your query regarding the composition of the unemployed in each region by migrant status.

We estimate the labour market status of migrants using the Annual Population Survey (APS), a survey based on interviews with members of private households in the UK.

An individual's migrant status can be defined in more than one way. For the APS we produce statistics based on two separate definitions: their nationality, or their country of birth. Neither of these gives a complete or perfect picture.

We publish estimates of labour market status by region for both country of birth and nationality on our Nomis website.

The spreadsheet in the accompanying downloads contains two sheets:

• The first gives an estimate of the number of unemployed in each region, along with the number of unemployed in each region born in the UK.
• The second gives an estimate of the number of unemployed in each region, along with the number of unemployed in each region with British nationality.

In each case the migrant unemployed may be considered to be the difference between the two, although there will be a small number of uncategorised cases within the total.

Estimates are provided from 2007, the earliest available, to the latest.