Trend
+25 Latest quarter change
+224 Change across series
48 Official data points
City of Edinburgh
Chris Murray
5 MPs cover constituencies in or overlapping City of Edinburgh.
167 people housed on asylum support in City of Edinburgh
Rank 153 of 361 councils nationally. The rate of 3.15 per 10,000 puts City of Edinburgh in the 34th percentile. That means a moderate load compared to the national picture. 86 in contingency accommodation (hotels, not housing). At roughly £150/person/day, that costs the taxpayer an estimated £9M per year for this area alone.
What asylum costs City of Edinburgh
£3.3Mestimated hotel costs/year
£427Ksubsistence payments/year
£200KLA dispersal grant/year
Estimates based on 167 people on asylum support in City of Edinburgh (0.16% 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.
City of Edinburgh: asylum numbers still rising
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.
Local numbers
Accommodation split
Dispersal accommodation 49
Initial accommodation 4
Subsistence only 28
Contingency accommodation 86
Pathway breakdown
Other routes
Homes for Ukraine 1,039
Afghan programme 579
Resettlement cumulative 702
Population context
All pathways total 1,785
Share of local population 0.34%
Full demographic profile
School pressure, housing demand, service demand scoring, economic profile, language projections, and more on UK Demographics.
View City of Edinburgh on UK Demographics →
National benchmarks
Supported asylum count
167 National distribution.
Supported asylum rate
3.15 Per 10,000 residents.
Contingency accommodation
86 Hotel and contingency placements.
Regional peers
Top 6 in Scotland by supported asylum.