The United Kingdom granted 49,498 work visas to Nigerians between 2021 and the first quarter of 2026, the latest official Home Office occupation visa data obtained by Sunday PUNCH shows.
The dominant grants went to the Nigerian health and care workers, and it is the second-highest total of any nationality granted UK work visas in the world.
According to the data, Nigerians submitted 54,707 work visa applications across the period, with a grant rate of 90.5 per cent, before the UK tightened its policy in 2024, which reduced Nigeria’s annual work visa grants from 28,495 in 2023 to just 2,851 across the whole of 2025.
The figures are drawn from two UK Home Office immigration datasets obtained by Sunday PUNCH covering 2021 to Q1 2026.
The datasets document work visa grants by occupation, industry, and nationality across the five-year span.
