Brits Abroad
easyexpat
| 11 December, 2006 16:33
Interesting reports on the BBC News website about the British expats.
An estimated 5.5m British people live permanently abroad – almost one in 10 of the UK population. The emigration of British people has happened in cycles over 200 years. The trend is now rising again: some 2,000 British citizens moved permanently away from the UK every week in 2005.
BRITS ABROAD: THE TOP COUNTRIES
| Country name | Resident Britons |
| Australia | 1,300,000 |
| Spain | 761,000 |
| United States | 678,000 |
| Canada | 603,000 |
| Ireland | 291,000 |
| New Zealand | 215,000 |
| South Africa | 212,000 |
| France | 200,000 |
Not surprising, Australia comes first.
But then is Spain as the second most popular destination in the world for emigrating British citizens, actually a specific choice for British pensioners (more than 21.5% are 64+).This is quite noticeable, especially when you see that all the 6 first countries (except Spain) are English speaking countries.
Then comes France as the second non-English speaking country as number 8 (12.5% are 64+ and 43.9% are 15-44 compared to 29.6% for the same ages in Spain).
Despite de language and strong links with the USA (at least between the two governments), America is not the first choice for immigration, essentially due to the specific status granted to English for residency (they cannot participate to the Green Card lottery for instance).
