Public records. Evidence. Accountability.United Kingdom ● Explore the record
The CartularyA record of the public realm

The Cartulary

Borders & Migration

Follow the immigration system through official registers, daily observations, local support figures and the questions that connect them.

Routes / institutions / outcomes

Follow the system.
Keep the categories clear.

A permanent record connecting places, public money, licensed organisations and unanswered questions.

The census / a changing population

Ethnicity, place by place.

Explore the White British share of residents across the census years. Select a place to compare the published counts and percentages.

Sources & method ↗

England and Wales figures on a UK map. Scotland and Northern Ireland use different ethnicity categories; grey areas are outside this comparison, not zero. Census ethnicity does not establish nationality, immigration status or the cause of a change.

Search narrows the area list.
2021Published census snapshots only

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Census 2021Share of residents

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Swipe to scroll the page. Tap an area to inspect it; choose “Move map” to drag the map.

White British share0–<20%20–<40%40–<60%60–<80%80–100%Outside comparison / unavailable
Sources, definitions and comparison method

What is being counted?

The numerator is the published White British ethnic-group count. In 2021 the category is named “White: English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British”. The denominator is all usual residents in the same area and census. This is a self-reported ethnic group, not a measure of citizenship, birthplace or immigration status.

White British is a short label. The 2001 category was White: British. In 2011 and 2021 the label explicitly includes English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish. Questionnaire wording and available response categories changed between censuses.

How are the years compared?

Only published census years are shown. The slider does not estimate the years between them. A share is the group count divided by all residents, multiplied by 100. A change in share is shown in percentage points; the separately labelled relative change divides that difference by the earlier share. These are different calculations.

The map uses December 2021 local authority boundaries. 2021 counts use the 331 England and Wales districts in Nomis geography type 154. The 2001 and 2011 extracts use the 348 districts in Nomis type 464, with 25 predecessor districts combined into eight later councils. Published census-area estimates are used; this is not a microdata re-estimate on perfectly constant boundaries, and minor boundary changes may affect local comparisons.

Why are some parts of the UK grey?

The census questions and categories differ across the UK. Scotland’s White Scottish and Other White British categories, and Northern Ireland’s White category, are not substituted for the England and Wales category here. Grey does not mean no White British residents. This release makes no UK-wide total.

Read a change carefully

These are population snapshots, not a record of the same individuals. Births, deaths, movements into and out of an area and changes in how people describe themselves can all affect the figures. This dataset alone cannot identify the causes of a local change.

Census disclosure controls adjust some counts. Local authority figures may therefore differ slightly from separately published national totals. The England and Wales summary uses the published national counts, not a sum of the local rows. These are historical census observations, not current population estimates.

Original sources and downloads

Complete extract and source notes (JSON) ↓ · Accessible CSV ↓

Extract checked 2026-09-19. Census statistics: Office for National Statistics. Boundaries: ONS Open Geography Portal. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right. Ultra-generalised boundaries for visualisation only.

01 / A changing register

Sponsor Intelligence

Search the official Worker and Temporary Worker register. Inspect routes, locations and changes observed by The Cartulary.

Search licensed sponsors →Register permission does not show how many workers an organisation has sponsored.
02 / Daily observations

Small-Boat Monitor

Inspect published daily detections, dated totals and source revisions. Missing observations stay visibly unavailable.

Open the daily record →Small-boat detections are one arrival route, not a count of all asylum seekers.
03 / The local record

Asylum Support Atlas

Explore 22 quarters of council-level support and accommodation figures. Compare dates with their coverage notes intact.

Explore the council map →Quarterly source: June 2026. The next scheduled source release is 26 November 2026.

The immigration system / a source explorer

Different measures.
Different questions.

Select a part of the system to see its dated measures. These panels do not track the same individuals through a single journey.

9 dated measures · select a record to inspect its definition and source.

Stock · UK93,293People receiving asylum support30 June 2026

People receiving Home Office asylum support at quarter end. Includes eligible applicants, some refused applicants and dependants. This is not the number awaiting an initial decision.

Inspect the official source ↗

Explore the associated Atlas →

Source checked 10 September 2026. Dated extract; automatic refresh applies to the sponsor and small-boat tools.
Stock · UK16,021In asylum hotel accommodation30 June 2026

The hotel-accommodation subset of the asylum-support population. It must not be added to the total support count.

Inspect the official source ↗

Explore the associated Atlas →

Source checked 10 September 2026. Dated extract; automatic refresh applies to the sponsor and small-boat tools.
Stock · UK73,068In non-hotel accommodation30 June 2026

Asylum-support accommodation other than hotels. People receiving subsistence-only support form another category.

Inspect the official source ↗

Explore the associated Atlas →

Source checked 10 September 2026. Dated extract; automatic refresh applies to the sponsor and small-boat tools.
Stock · people40,168Awaiting an initial asylum decision30 June 2026

People whose asylum claims were awaiting an initial decision, including dependants. It excludes people awaiting later stages such as an appeal.

Inspect the official source ↗

Explore the associated Atlas →

Source checked 10 September 2026. Dated extract; automatic refresh applies to the sponsor and small-boat tools.
Flow · recorded returns39,690Returns from the UKYear ending July 2026

Recorded enforced and voluntary returns during the twelve-month period. These are not all deportations and do not represent the same cohort as this year’s arrivals.

Inspect the official source ↗Source checked 10 September 2026. Dated extract; automatic refresh applies to the sponsor and small-boat tools.
Flow · subset of returns5,928Foreign-national offender returnsYear ending July 2026

Recorded foreign-national offender returns, including enforced and voluntary returns. Foreign nationality, asylum status and method of entry are different characteristics.

Inspect the official source ↗Source checked 10 September 2026. Dated extract; automatic refresh applies to the sponsor and small-boat tools.
Flow · visits7,270Illegal-working enforcement visitsJanuary–June 2026

Operational visits recorded by Immigration Enforcement. This measures enforcement activity, not the total prevalence of illegal working. Figures are provisional.

Inspect the official source ↗Source checked 10 September 2026. Dated extract; automatic refresh applies to the sponsor and small-boat tools.
Flow · arrests4,756Arrests during illegal-working visitsJanuary–June 2026

Recorded arrests associated with illegal-working visits. An arrest is not a conviction. Penalties can relate to visits in earlier periods, so same-period totals cannot be joined person by person.

Inspect the official source ↗Source checked 10 September 2026. Dated extract; automatic refresh applies to the sponsor and small-boat tools.
Stock · people21,294FNOs in the community subject to deportationEnd of Q2 2026

The published stock cited in the Home Office’s parliamentary answer of 8 September 2026. It is not a count of people newly released in 2026 and does not describe asylum status.

Inspect the official source ↗Source checked 10 September 2026. Dated extract; automatic refresh applies to the sponsor and small-boat tools.

Stock counts what is present at a date. Flow counts events over a period. A fall in one stock does not identify where those people went.

Work, study, family and humanitarian routes are distinct from asylum claims and detected illegal entry. Explore the full Home Office statistical release ↗

One subject / the Cartulary’s collections

Follow each record further.

Questions for the record

Turn a lead into an answerable question.

These are research questions, not submitted requests or findings about a named business.

Which licensed sponsors also received illegal-working civil penalties?

The two official lists do not share a dependable company identifier. Names must be matched to the same legal entity and period, then checked against amendments, appeals and cancelled penalties before a link is published.

Why does a sponsor disappear from the register?

An observed removal supplies no official reason. A name change, corporate restructuring, administrative change or licence decision requires its own evidence. History here begins with our first successful observation.

What happened during a reported Channel incident?

A vessel track and a launch time cannot alone establish distress, tasking instructions or the reason for an operation. A retrospective incident file needs attributable records from the agencies involved.

Suggest a question or supply a source →