asylumstats Follow YOUR money
Northern Ireland

Belfast

Updated 31 Dec 2025 · Home Office
Gavin Robinson
Gavin Robinson DUP · Belfast East

4 MPs cover constituencies in or overlapping Belfast.

1,607 people housed on asylum support in Belfast

Rank 5 of 361 councils nationally. The rate of 45.6 per 10,000 puts Belfast in the 98th percentile. That means this area carries more asylum seekers per head than 90% of the country. At roughly £150/person/day, that costs the taxpayer an estimated £88M per year for this area alone.

What asylum costs Belfast

£31.6Mestimated hotel costs/year
£4.1Msubsistence payments/year
£1.9MLA dispersal grant/year

Estimates based on 1,607 people on asylum support in Belfast (1.50% of 107,003 nationally). Hotel costs pro-rated from £5.77M/day national spend (2024/25 average, NAO). Subsistence: £49.18/week per person. Nationally, the hotel bill alone costs £62 per taxpayer per year.

Belfast: asylum numbers falling

Quarter-end stock series to Dec 2025. A rise or fall is a net change in the number of people on support at period end, not the number of new claims or distinct people moving through the caseload. Support stock also overlaps with, but is not identical to, the awaiting-decision backlog.

1,749
2,737 1,825 912 0 Mar 2014 Dec 2025 Peak Dec 2022 Rwanda scheme Albania deal Bibby Stockholm Rwanda scrapped

Trend

-30 Latest quarter change
+1,270 Change across series
48 Official data points

Local numbers

Accommodation split

Dispersal accommodation 1,539
Initial accommodation 59
Subsistence only 9
Contingency accommodation 0

Pathway breakdown

Supported asylum
1,607
Homes for Ukraine
305
Afghan programme
62
Resettlement cumulative
419

Other routes

Homes for Ukraine 305
Afghan programme 62
Resettlement cumulative 419

Population context

All pathways total 1,974
Share of local population 0.56%
Full demographic profile School pressure, housing demand, service demand scoring, economic profile, language projections, and more on UK Demographics. View Belfast on UK Demographics →