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Emigrants

Answer

We do not hold records of the number of UK citizens who move abroad permanently. However, we can provide an estimate of the number of British nationals living abroad in the last 10 years as shown in the following table:

Estimated size of the British community
	Million
1996	13.3
1997	13.4
1998	13.3
1999	15.8
2000	15.5
2001–02	12.9
2002–03	12.8
2003–04	13.2
2004–05	13.1

These figures are taken from the consular annual returns from overseas posts. There is no requirement for UK citizens to register with British missions overseas and therefore these figures are provided by our overseas posts on the basis of the most reliable information they can obtain e.g. from host government official statistics. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office only holds a breakdown of the 2004–05 figure as follows:

Consular annual return 2004–05: estimated size of the British national community
Country (Total: 156)	Estimated size of the British community
Afghanistan	900
Albania	194
Algeria	800
Angola	750
Antigua and Barbuda	2,800
Argentina	5,000
Armenia	60
Australia	2,066,000
Austria	5,447
Azerbaijan	2,800
Bahamas	7,000
Bahrain	7,000
Bangladesh	3,900
Barbados	2,200
Belarus	25
Belgium	55,000
Belize	1,984
Bolivia	270
Bosnia and Herzegovina	400
Botswana	5,500
Brazil	6,192
Brunei	3,000
Bulgaria	800
Burma	130
Cambodia	1,000
Cameroon	300
Canada	2,400,000
Chile	15,397
China (including Hong Kong)	3,752,031
Colombia	3,050
Costa Rica	2,000
Croatia	900
Cuba	160
Cyprus	60,000
Czech Republic	3,000
Denmark	13,000
Djibouti	20
Dominican Republic	600
East Timor	50
Ecuador	800
Egypt	10,989
El Salvador	—
Eritrea	—
Estonia	200
Ethiopia	731
Fiji	500
Finland	2,643
France	301,000
Gambia	2,000
Georgia	202
Germany	132,872
Ghana	3,500
Greece	40,000
Grenada	2,500
Guatemala	1,200
Guinea	—
Guyana	2,000
Haiti	—
Honduras	—
Hungary	2,700
Iceland	800
India	31,800
Indonesia	5,000
Iran	2,100
Iraq	2,000
Ireland	103,476
Israel	35,000
Italy	50,500
Ivory Coast (Cote d'lvoire)	—
Jamaica	4,500
Japan	26,000
Jerusalem	20,000
Jordan	2,000
Kazakhstan	3,500
Kenya	20,000
Korea (North)	11
Korea (South)	3,000
Kuwait	4,500
Laos	—
Latvia	400
Lebanon	14,774
Lesotho	350
Libya	3,500
Lithuania	150
Luxembourg	4,580
Macedonia	145
Madagascar	300
Malawi	4,500
Malaysia	6,000
Malta	6,000
Mauritius	1,560
Mexico	14,450
Moldova	75
Mongolia	200
Morocco	1,450
Mozambique	900
Namibia	1,750
Nepal	800
Netherlands	70,600
New Zealand	450,000
Nicaragua	—
Nigeria	5,548
Norway	15,000
Oman	6,500
Pakistan	85,000
Panama	220
Papua New Guinea	—
Paraguay	1,000
Peru	1,250
Philippines	15,000
Poland	8,400
Portugal	24,204
Qatar	6,000
Romania	4,500
Russia	5,895
Rwanda	—
Saudi Arabia	19,000
Senegal	200
Serbia and Montenegro	300
Seychelles	1,250
Sierra Leone	1,000
Singapore	17,000
Slovakia	700
Slovenia	400
Solomon Islands	85
South Africa	750,000
Spain	677,000
Sri Lanka	2,500
St. Lucia	1,000
St. Vincent and the Grenadines	700
Sudan	473
Swaziland	1,500
Sweden	14,500
Switzerland	28,700
Syria	1,238
Tajikistan	200
Tanzania	6,870
Thailand	35,700
Tonga	100
Trinidad and Tobago	5,000
Tunisia	800
Turkey	9,550
Turkmenistan	70
Uganda	2,483
Ukraine	650
United Arab Emirates	115,000
Uruguay	900
USA	1,380,200
Uzbekistan	127
Vanuatu	145
Venezuela	2,000
Vietnam	2,150
Yemen	6,000
Zaire	230
Zambia	8,000
Zimbabwe	13,000
Total	13,115,406

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

60649; 444 c419-21W;444 c419-21W

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Emigration

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk