The study, ‘Emigration – a short story’, found that 136,000 British migrants left the UK in 2010, the lowest number since 1998.
Long-term international migration data – which includes migrants who change their country of residence for 12 months or more – shows that overall emigration, including both British and non-British citizens, has also fallen sharply in recent years.
Just 339,000 migrants left the UK last year, a 20% decline on the 427,000 recorded in 2008. This was a similar fall to that seen between 2006 and 2007, the ONS noted, when the overall number of emigrants tumbled by about 14%, from 398,000 to 341,000.
Of the 339,000 migrants who chose to move overseas from the UK in 2010, the vast majority (93%) were of working age. Just over a third said they had professional or managerial occupations prior to migration, and about half of this group were British citizens.
Lure of the Commonwealth
The study also revealed differences between the destinations of British and non-British migrants.
For British migrants, the lure of “Old Commonwealth” countries – particularly Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa – remained strong in 2010, while just a quarter took advantage of freedom of movement rules in the European Union, to move to another EU country.
In contrast, 46% of non-British emigrants moved within the EU. Poland was the top destination for the third consecutive year, as Polish citizens continued to return home in large numbers.
Across both groups, most said work-related reasons were behind their decision to leave the UK.
