Population Studies: Migration
Cabinet Office

Mark Field (Cities of London and Westminster, Conservative)

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office whether he plans to include migrants who come to the UK for less than 12 months in official population estimates.

Nick Hurd (Parliamentary Secretary (Civil Society), Cabinet Office; Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, Conservative)

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated January 2012

As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to respond to your Parliamentary question asking the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to include migrants who come to the UK for less than 12 months in official population estimates (89862).

The Mid-Year Population Estimates as they are currently published are consistent with the standard UN definition for population estimates which is based upon the concept of usual residence and includes people who reside in the location for at least 12 months. This definition is also the recommended definition used by Eurostat to provide comparable population data at EU level.

Visitors and short-term migrants (who enter or leave the UK for less than 12 months) are not included in the official population estimates and there are no plans to do so.

ONS currently publishes England and Wales estimates of short-term migrant inflows and the next bulletin is due to be published on 23 February. Additionally ONS plans to publish recently developed experimental short-term migration inflow estimates for each local authority on 23 February. These estimates will help local authorities understand how many short term migrants entered each England and Wales local authority for work or study purposes and stayed for periods of between 3-12 months in the mid-years 2008-2010. It should be noted however that these estimates are inflows of short-term migrants, not stocks.