ONS data shows figures for 2017 – the first full calendar year since the Brexit vote.
The figure was up by 33,000 on the year before, but statisticians attributed the rise to an “unusual pattern” in estimates of non-EU student immigration for 2016 which research suggests was an “anomaly”.
Non-EU net migration was estimated to be 227,000 last year, which is more than twice the figure for the EU.
“Net migration fell following record levels in 2015 and early 2016 and has been broadly stable since. This is similar to the level recorded in the year ending September 2014.
The government said last week in a paper setting out its Brexit negotiating aims that it wanted to control the number of EU immigrants after Brexit to address the public’s concerns about pressures on public services and wages for low earners.
Immigration minister Caroline Nokes said the figures showed that “more of the people who are coming to the UK are coming for the reasons we would want – to take up a definite job or to study”.
She said: “More EU nationals continue to arrive than leave and as the ONS have made clear, net migration has been broadly stable since late 2016.
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