More Brits choose expat life than any other EU nationality

Of all the EU member states, Britain has the most nationals living overseas, according to a recent survey.

The study, undertaken by a financial research and consultancy firm, revealed that over a million Britons were resident abroad during 2013. Out of the 25 countries surveyed, only China and India had more citizens living overseas.

Conversely, foreign expats living in the UK during the same period totalled 1.19 million, a differential of just 30,000. At present, more immigrants are arriving in the country than there are migrants leaving, with the gap expected to widen considerably to around 90,000 over the next five years.

Of the British expats surveyed, 60 per cent left the UK to work abroad, citing quality of life and higher salaries, and one out of four were retirees looking for better weather and a lower cost of living. Very few, just one out of every 20, went abroad to study, although four out of ten foreign expats in the UK are students.

Slightly less than half of all foreign expatriates are in work in the UK, but the country obviously isn’t regarded as a retirement destination as only five in every 100 incomers said they were retired. The increasingly large number of overseas students studying at UK universities has resulted in the British higher education system receiving more overseas funding than any world country except the USA.