Just under five million applications were made to the EU settlement scheme by the end of last year, figures show.

EU citizens and their families are asked to apply to the Home Office scheme by June in order to carry on living and working in the UK now the Brexit transition period and freedom of movement has ended.

As of December 31 2020, 4,916,280 applications had been received, with 90% received in England, 5% in Scotland, 2% in Wales and 2% in Northern Ireland, according to the Home Office.

Across all nationalities, the highest numbers of applications received in the scheme – which launched fully on March 30 2019 – were from Polish, Romanian and Italian nationals.

Polish and Romanian nationals were consistently among the highest application numbers within England, Scotland and Wales while in Northern Ireland it was Polish and Lithuanian nationals who accounted for the largest number of applications.

There were 717,080 applications received from people under 18, 4,088,060 applications from those aged 18 to 64, and 111,130 applications from those aged 65 and above (15%, 83% and 2%, respectively).

The Home Office said 4,514,250 applications had been concluded up to December 31.

Of the concluded outcomes, 54% (2,432,940) were granted settled status, 43% (1,949,950) were granted pre-settled status and 3% had other outcomes (including 34,240 refused applications, 47,870 withdrawn or void applications, and 49,210 invalid applications).

Concluded outcomes granted settled status were higher for Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland (62%, 59%, 57%, respectively), compared to England (54%).

The data in the report account for the number of applications to the system, including individuals making applications on more than one occasion.

An individual who has been granted pre-settled status can make a new application at a later stage to apply for settled status.

The Home Office said that as these are separate applications with separate outcomes, they are counted separately in the statistics.

Analysis of internal figures, as of December 31 2020, suggests repeat applications currently represent fewer than 5% of applications received.

The Home Office said it intends to publish additional detail on repeat applicants in the next quarterly publication.