The truth about migration in Coventry as thousands move out of the city

New data reveals that far more people left Coventry than moved here last year. With government pressure on net migration, the city actually had over 8,000 more people than arrived in 2023.

Thousands of people in Britain are moving out of Britain’s biggest cities and out of the countryside, official data has shown. Internal migration figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that all major UK cities saw more people move in 2023 than moved out.

The data shows people who decided to move from one part of the country to another. In 2023, around 860,000 people left London to live elsewhere in the UK, which is 130,000 more than the 730,000 who decided to settle in the capital.

Read more: ‘Inclusive’ Coventry school with a ‘strong community’ receives praise from Ofsted

There was a similar pattern in Coventry, Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham, Leeds, Bristol and Sheffield. But rural and coastal areas saw an increase in residents, with the biggest increases in Cheshire, Yorkshire, Dorset, Cornwall and Northumberland.

Around 3.7 million people moved from one part of the UK to another in 2023. For Coventry, 23,169 moved and 31,793 moved, meaning 8,624 more people left the city than they moved. Birmingham saw the biggest increase, with around 56,000 moving to the city. city ​​last year, but 74,000 moved, a loss of about 17,500 people.

Warwickshire has had more people moving into the county. North Warwickshire had 4,040 people moved, with 3,582 moved, an increase of 458 people. Warwick has 12,543 movers and 11,643 movers, with a further 860 people in the borough.

Of the top 30 areas with the highest net migration, all were London boroughs or major cities except Luton and Slough. The only major city to see a net increase was Cardiff, which gained around 2,500 residents from internal migration.

The figures follow recent trends and appear to show that UK cities are losing their appeal, possibly due to higher rent and housing costs, although prices are below the national average in Coventry and Nottingham. The biggest net migration is Cornwall, with 20,000 people moved, but 25,000 moved, followed by Cheshire East.

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At just under 200,000, more women than men moved in 2023, and the majority of movers were between the ages of 19 and 29. More 19-year-olds have moved, many likely going to university, followed by 22-year-olds, the age when many finish their studies and return home or move to other parts of the UK for job opportunities.

Here are the full net inward migration figures for major cities:

• London (all boroughs) -129,000
• Birmingham -17,481
• Coventry -8,624
• Nottingham -8,271
• Manchester -7,897
• Leicester -7,797
• Leeds -5,024
• Sheffield -4,502
• Bristol -3,774
• Bradford -3,531
• Portsmouth -3,432
• Middlesbrough -2,964
• Southampton -2,291
• Oxford -2,270
• Liverpool -1,845
• Brighton -1,938
• Newcastle -1,814

What do you think of the net migration figures for Coventry? Let us know in the comments below.

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