UK asylum claims: dependants
UK asylum claims: dependants stood at 2,908 people in Q2 2026, according to Home Office — Immigration system statistics. It is one of the indicators in the Immigration, quarterly table (Value · Quarterly), with a complete series running from Q1 2002 to Q2 2026. The complete series with an interactive chart, free to download.
This indicator in the Immigration, quarterly table
| Indicator | Q2-2026 | Q1-2026 | Q4-2025 | Q3-2025 | Q2-2025 | Q1-2025 | Q4-2024 | Q3-2024 | Q2-2024 | Q1-2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asylum claims | |||||||||||
| Dependants | 2,908 | 3,220 | 4,054 | 5,861 | 4,878 | 4,559 | 5,578 | 6,209 | 5,737 | 4,872 | |
| Claimed at port of entry | 987 | 977 | 1,605 | 1,796 | 1,607 | 1,885 | 3,005 | 3,058 | 2,459 | 2,685 |
Understanding UK asylum claims: dependants
The aggregate count of family members officially attached to primary protection applications processed by authorities across the United Kingdom. This subset isolates spouses, civil partners, and dependent children who accompany or subsequently join a principal claimant seeking sanctuary. It differs from principal applicant counts by reflecting household composition rather than individual case initiations. Only secondary participants explicitly linked to an active protection file are captured within this metric.
Evaluating these figures requires recognising that dependant volumes fluctuate in response to family-oriented migration patterns and legal provisions governing household unity across the United Kingdom. Analysts should compare data on a year-on-year basis to account for demographic shifts that district-level quarterly numbers fail to illuminate. Pitfalls include assuming every principal claimant brings dependants, as a substantial proportion of protection seekers lodge single-person applications.
Frequently asked questions
- Can dependants be added to a claim after it has already been lodged?
- Yes, family members can sometimes be appended to an ongoing case, subject to strict Home Office verification of relationship ties.
- What happens to dependants if the primary applicant is refused protection?
- The administrative outcome generally applies to the entire family unit linked to that specific case file, subject to individual representations.
- Are newborn children in the country counted in this series?
- Children born to protection claimants while in the country are typically registered through specialised administrative procedures rather than standard port intake.