UK reports highest growth rate in permanent migration among OECD countries

Permanent migration to OECD countries is at an all-time high, with 11 countries seeing record numbers in arrivals.

The total number of people who moved to an OECD member in 2023 is above 6.5 million. The amount - which doesn't include Ukrainians under temporary protection status - is the highest on record with a 10% rise from 2022.

The US was the top destination in 2023, with 1.2 million legal new permanent migrant residents.

The UK rose to second with an unprecedented 750,000 new arrivals - a remarkable 52% increase from 2022 and the highest growth rate among all OECD member countries.

Over half of migrants who permanently moved to the UK for work reasons did so under a Health and Care Worker visa.

Germany ranks third in terms of overall new migrants, followed by Canada, Poland, Spain and France.

In addition to the UK, Poland, Hungary, Australia, Canada, France, Finland, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg and Switzerland all registered record immigration levels, according to the report.

South Korea reported the highest growth rate after the UK (+50.9%), followed by Australia (39.7%).

On the other hand, the steepest declines were recorded in Turkey (-46.3%), Estonia (-36%), Lithuania (-32%), New Zealand (-23%) and Israel (-38%).

What are the largest nationalities moving to the OCED area?

Other than Ukrainians, Indians accounted for the largest nationality moving to OECD countries (560,000) followed by Chinese (over 300,000), and Russians and Romanians (around 270,000 each).

Most people moved because of family reasons (31%) and for work (20%).

In the EU, the largest share is employed in mining and manufacturing (17.6%), and in wholesale and retail trade and hotels & restaurants (13.5%).

Immigrants more likely to be self-employed

Immigrants account for 17% of self-employed people on average in the OCED area, while in two-thirds of OECD countries they are more likely to be self-employed than the local population.

That is particularly true in Colombia, where the gap between foreign-born and locally-born entrepreneurs is 7.4%.

Slovakia (5.6%), Hungary (5.4%) and the Czech Republic (4.8%) had the highest rate differences in the EU.