Net migration to the UK rose last year to 196,000, up by 33,000 from the number in 2008.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show 4% fewer people arrived in the UK last year – 567,000 compared with 590,000 in 2008 – but the number leaving dropped further, by 13%.
Home Office data shows a 37% rise in people granted settlement in the UK between June 2009 and June 2010.
The number of visas issued to students also went up by 35% to 362,015.
The Home Office's annual bulletin, released on Thursday, also contained the latest available figures for 2010, detailing population movements in the second quarter of the year.
In this period, the number of applications to the UK for asylum, excluding dependants, was 29% down on the same quarter in 2009. Two-thirds of this fall was due to a drop in applications from Zimbabwe, from 1,560 to 405.
In 2009 as a whole, asylum applications, excluding dependents, dropped 6% from 2008 levels.
In the second quarter of this year, the Home Office said 14,130 people were removed from the UK or left voluntarily, 14% fewer than the same quarter in 2009 when the figure was 16,345.
The BBC's Andy Tighe said the increase in student visas issued was significant and there was some concern within the government about how easy it appeared to be for people to move to the UK with their families on study-related permits.
Our home affairs correspondent said the figures also showed a significant fall in the number of work-related visas issued, in part due to the recession and also because of the points-based system for those wishing to come to the UK from outside Europe.
Other details included:
Long-term emigration fell to 371,000 last year from 427,000 in 2008Of those granted settlement in the UK in 2009, 68% were dependents of those already living in the countryMigrants from the Indian sub-continent made up to largest proportion of settlement grants, 34%. Of the remainder 25% were from Africa and 21% from elsewhere in AsiaThe number of Polish migrants coming to the UK in 2009 fell 22% to 118,675, from 151,870 in 2008But the number from Latvia and Lithuania increased considerably – the former from 6,005 to 16,020, and the latter from 10,550 to 15,815
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