Study finds nearly 1 in 10 Britons live abroad
LONDON, Dec 11 (Reuters) Nearly one in ten Britons have opted to quit the country, either permanently or for part of the year, and the trend towards living abroad looks set to continue, according to a report today.
The motive, it says, is more a desire to enjoy the attractions of other countries rather than escape from Britain.
About 5.5 million Britons already live overseas permanently and a further 500,000 spend part of the year abroad, representing nearly ten per cent of the British population, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) study revealed.
The figures showed there are now more Britons living abroad than foreigners living in Britain, the ''Brits Abroad'' study found.
While the vast majority of overseas Britons live in English-speaking countries like the United States, Canada and Australia, there are also sizeable populations in Spain, France and Germany.
Britons abroad come from different geographical and socio-economic backgrounds and while the former colonies remain popular destinations, the ease of movement within the EU has led to more European countries being called home.
Many of the expats are young professionals but there are also more pensioners than ever before who have decided to retire away from Britain.
The IPPR research also appeared to dispel the myth that people left Britain because they were fed up with the country.
''The dominant motivations for emigration seem to be positive attributes of the place emigrants would like to go to rather than the negative attributes of the UK,'' the report's authors, Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah and Catherine Drew concluded.
Britain is likely to experience high net emigration -- the numbers leaving exceeding the numbers of Britons returning -- in the coming years.
''If the current trend continues, we could expect as many as a million more British nationals to emigrate over the next five years,'' the authors said.
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