News
More Brits leaving the UK
According to recently released data from the Office for National Statistics, an estimated 380,000 people left British shores in search of a new life abroad in 2005
This represents a 25 per cent increase in the number of British citizens leaving the UK between 2001 and 2005.
The figures, which were derived largely from face-to-face interviews which formed the International Passenger Survey (IPS), along with Home Office and Irish Central Statistics Office data, suggest that Australia is by far and away the most popular destination for want-away British citizens, with over 70,000 of those who left the UK between 2004 and 2005 naming Oz as their country of next residence.
While this figure may seem fairly high, given that only around 22,000 Brits tend to assume permanent residence in Australia each year, it's worth nothing that these figures take into account those emigrating on a temporary basis (for 12 months or more), and are based mostly on word of mouth as opposed to official sources.
After Australia, Spain was the next most popular country for Brits leaving the UK (51,000), followed by France (42,000), New Zealand (30,000) and the United States (25,000).
And it would appear that a growing number of those leaving the UK aren't planning to return to live here again any time soon. A record 71 per cent of all those leaving Britain's shores to live somewhere else said that they intended to stay abroad for four or more years, compared with just 61 per cent in 2001.
However, despite an increase in the number of people leaving Britain, the survey estimates that around 185,000 more people still entered the UK than left in 2005.While a number of the 565,000 people who arrived to live in the UK for a period of a year or more were British citizens returning 'home', the figures estimate that there was a 27 per cent rise of non-British citizens migrating to the UK between 2001 and 2005.
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Related articles:
Emigrating to Australia
Emigrating to New Zealand
Emigrating to Canada
Emigrating to America
Emigrating to South Africa
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09 May 2007