Tap the questions below
How many people are in asylum accommodation?
An asylum seeker is someone who wants to be in the UK because they say they cannot live safely in their own country due to persecution or violence.
The government must house an asylum seeker if they cannot financially support themselves while their claim is being considered. There were 89,089 people in asylum accommodation as of June 2026.
About 18% of those people, 16,021, were in hotels. These are used when there is not enough shared housing available, such as houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) or former military sites.
The government has pledged to stop the use of hotels by 2029.
More people are in hotels across the south of England than elsewhere in the UK, while HMOs are more common in the north of England and Scotland.
Numbers of asylum seekers in hotels by council area
A modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive
How many people apply for asylum in the UK?
A total of 85,891 people applied for asylum in the UK from July 2025 to June 2026. This was down by 21% on the same period in the previous year.
Most people who arrive in the UK by small boat claim asylum, but they were only 40% of all asylum seekers from July 2025 to June 2026.
The rest include people who arrived by other illegal means or who came to the UK legally and applied for asylum while holding, or just after holding, a valid visa.
How big is the asylum backlog?
It can take years for the government to decide whether someone should be granted asylum.
In June 2026, 40,168 people – across 32,401 asylum applications – were waiting for an initial decision. The number of people awaiting an initial decision was down by 56% on the previous year.
As of June 2026, a further 90,341 refused asylum applications were part of a second backlog, waiting the outcome of an appeal in the courts. This was up by 51% on the previous year.
Together, these initial decision and appeal cases form the government’s total asylum applications backlog, which it has pledged to clear.
Refugee status was granted in about 38% of asylum decisions made by the Home Office from July 2025 to June 2026.
About 39% of asylum appeal cases concluded between January 2026 to December 2026 resulted in a previous refusal decision being overturned.
