Long-term international migration bulletins: user feedback

Long-term international migration statistics (LTIM) produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) serve a wide range of users across government and beyond.

The ONS asked for your views on the opening section of the LTIM bulletin. Previously the bulletin opened with a "Main points" section but in the most recent publication we switched to using a longer "Overview" section. We wanted to know which approach is best for our users. 

We received 11 responses.

Responses were received from a range of stakeholders, mostly from academia and the government sector. Feedback was also received from those responding in a personal capacity.

The feedback has allowed us to gain a better understanding of user’s preferred structure at the start of the bulletin. It highlighted:

• The majority of respondents (55%) preferred the “Main points” approach to the first section of the report. This was because it was considered more succinct and gave a quick and clear overview of the article, without going in to too much detail.
• There was no explanation provided for those that preferred the “Overview” option or for those that had no preference to either approach.

In our latest release, Long-term international migration, provisional: year ending December 2024 we used the feedback to create a more concise first section. We continued to call the first section an “Overview”, as we aimed to create a short narrative of the key findings from the bulletin. However, we wrote in in a similar way to the previous “Main points” to ensure the points were clear and easy to get across.

We had also reflected on the writing style of past publications and removed a lot of unnecessary information from the top section.

We would like to thank everyone who took part in these user engagement activities, and provided us with valuable feedback that have, and will continue to guide improvements to our Long-term international migration bulletins.

If you have any further questions or would like to request additional information, then please email pop.info@ons.gov.uk.