The North East has gained more people from the rest of the United Kingdom than it has lost in every year since 2017, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates.
In the year to June 2025, the region gained a net 7,439 people from elsewhere in the country, following 7,138 the year before.
In comparison, the North East was still a net loser in the early 2010s. It lost 3,649 people to the rest of the country in the year to June 2012 and another 2,333 the following year.
Migration was close to balance in the middle of the decade before turning clearly positive in 2017.
These figures count moves across the North East boundary. Someone moving from Newcastle to Northumberland has no effect on the regional net figure because one North East authority’s loss is another’s gain. Only moves between the region and the rest of the UK alter the total.
Nine of the region’s twelve local authorities gained people from elsewhere in the country in the latest year. Hartlepool, Northumberland and Darlington recorded the largest gains relative to their populations. Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough recorded losses.
Newcastle lost a net 1,991 people, but its largest net outflows were to neighbouring authorities. It lost a net 1,468 to North Tyneside, with Gateshead and Northumberland the next largest destinations.
Those losses were partly offset by gains from elsewhere, including Sunderland, North Yorkshire and Northern Ireland.
Newcastle nevertheless recorded the smallest internal migration loss of any English core city in each of the past two years. Core cities include Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield.
Its age profile helps explain why. Newcastle gained a net 6,086 people aged 15 to 19, largely reflecting its student population, but lost 6,555 aged 20 to 34. The large inflow of teenagers keeps the overall figure relatively close to balance despite the larger loss of adults.
More detailed ONS estimates show that about two in five of Newcastle’s net loss among 20-to-34-year-olds, some 2,592 people, was to other North East authorities.
North Tyneside, Gateshead and Northumberland were the main destinations. About three-fifths of the net loss was to places outside the region, with London accounting for roughly a sixth of the total.
The figures do not show why people move, but the pattern is consistent with a life-stage shift. Newcastle attracts large numbers of students, then loses people in their twenties and thirties. Some may be moving beyond the city boundary for more space or as they prepare to start families.
Other parts of the North East more than made up for the three losing authorities. Northumberland, Hartlepool and Darlington together gained a net 6,859 people, more than Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough lost combined. Northumberland’s gain was spread across almost every age group.
The overall regional gain is not especially large. At about 2.7 people per 1,000 residents, the North East sits close to the East Midlands and behind the South West, East of England and South East.
Middlesbrough’s position is more serious. It lost a net 3,630 people to the rest of the UK, while its total population fell 1.23 per cent, from 154,700 to 152,795. It was the only North East local authority whose population fell and recorded the eighth-largest percentage fall in England and Wales.
Middlesbrough’s administrative boundary appears to explain part of the result. More than half of its net internal migration loss was to nearby authorities, including 971 people to Stockton-on-Tees and 479 to Redcar and Cleveland. Relatively short moves can therefore count as departures from Middlesbrough without taking people far from the town.
The age profile suggests that the boundary is not the whole explanation. Middlesbrough lost a net 447 children under ten and 1,833 people aged 25 to 34. Its losses extended from young children through to people in their seventies, a pattern consistent with families leaving.
These figures are estimates rather than exact counts, particularly when divided into detailed age groups. They are best read as evidence of a broad pattern rather than precise measures of every movement.
Middlesbrough’s position is unusual for another reason. Its median age was 37, making it the second-youngest local authority in the region after Newcastle. It also recorded 1,868 births and 1,471 deaths in the year to June 2025, making it one of only two North East authorities with more births than deaths. Yet Middlesbrough was the only one whose population fell.