FOI reference: FOI-2026-3570
You asked
Under the FOIA 2000, please could you provide me with the destinations of British nationals emigrating abroad for the year ending December 2025, ordered by popularity.
Please could you also provide a rough estimate of the number of British nationals emigrating to each destination.
e.g. 1. Australia -- 50,000, 2. UAE -- 20,000 3. Italy -- 10,000
If you cannot provide year ending December 2025, please provide the most up to date data.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Unfortunately, we do not hold the information you have requested.
The Home Office and Department for Work and Pension's data that we use to produce our estimates do not contain this information. Therefore, we are not able to produce estimates on how many or in which countries British nationals are living abroad.
Whilst it might be held by government in other countries, we do not have access to the administrative data that is collected by other countries about their populations. As a result, we cannot provide a ranked list of destinations or estimates of the number of British nationals emigrating to each country.
However, we have recently published an article that explains what data are available on UK emigration and the limitations involved in measuring British nationals moving abroad. This may be helpful in addressing your query:
UK emigration explained: what we know about Brits moving abroad
This article outlines the sources we use, what insights can be derived, and the challenges associated with producing robust estimates of emigration destinations by nationality.
If you have any further questions, please do email us at pop.info@ons.gov.uk.