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Why do the UK’s net migration numbers keep being revised – and can we trust the data?

The Conversation
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83% Informative

In May last year , we learned that net migration to the UK had reached an unusually high level of 606,000 in 2022 .

This spring , the 2022 figure was revised up again to 764,000 .

Now the Office for National Statistics (ONS ) believes net migration in 2022 was actually 872,000 , 44% higher than the original estimate.

More recent figures have also been revised.

Even if revisions are planned, they may still have a cost: lower public trust in the data.

ONS could have decided not to publish the data at all, given that the methods were still in development.

But we are still in a much better place than we were before the new methods were developed.