How many British citizens living abroad and migrants in the UK?

This relates to British citizens living abroad statistics from 1990 to 2017. And also provides the details of immigrants living in the UK by country of origin. Moreover, the post also tries to answer: how long British Citizen can stay outside the UK in the light of British Nationality Act 1981 and immigration rules.

British Citizens Living Abroad have increased to 4.92 million

According to UN, during 1990 to 2017, the number of British Citizens living abroad has increased from 3.79 m to 4.92 m. Apparently, the EU has not been the most common destination for Brits choosing to emigrate as 33% of all British-born emigrants living outside the UK in 2017 lived in Australia or New Zealand, 28% lived in the US or Canada and 26% in the EU – of which 6% lived in Ireland. Moreover, 69% of British citizens living in the EU lived in Spain, France or Germany in 2017.

How long British Citizen can stay outside UK?

Perhaps, a short answer is that Section 40 of the British Citizenship Act 1981 does not indicate any reason for depriving British Citizenship for any length of stay abroad. Therefore, British Citizenship can live in another country as long as he/she may deem appropriate. However, this could be misleading if we don’t try to understand the issues pertaining to purpose and permission of staying in another country.

Reciprocity of Immigration Status

The immigration status of Citizens is on a reciprocal basis. For instance, Britain joined the European Economic Community (EEC) on Jan 1, 1973. Accordingly, both the EEC (i.e. now EU) nationals and British nationals enjoyed the right of free movement, which may definitely change on and after March 29, 2019, due to BREXIT.

The free movement enables a British Citizen to live in EU without restrictions. Therefore, a British Citizen can live outside the UK in EU as long as he/she deems necessary. However, even this free movement requires certain documentation. For instance, EEA or Swiss Nationals intending to stay in Austria do not require any authorisation. However, if EEA or a Swiss national intend to stay in Austria for more than three months, then needs to apply for ‘registration certificate’ within four months from entry into Austria.

How long a British Citizen can live in non-EU countries?

A reciprocal arrangement of UK also exists with non-visa nations such as the US, Canada etc. This arrangement has a limited scope and applies in the case for a temporary visit up to 180 days per visits. However, the purpose of such visits is only tourism, meeting family or attending business meetings etc. One can’t work or do business without specific permission. Since Britain allows Non-Visa Nationals a permission to STAY (not LIVE) in the UK for up to 180 days and the arrangement are on a reciprocal basis, therefore, British Citizens may also be allowed to STAY in those countries for up to 180 days. However, if a British Citizen migrates to a non-visa country then needs to abide by the immigration rules of that country- and may remain outside the UK as per the immigration rules of that country.

Year	1990	1995	2000	2005	2010	2015	2017
British Citizens Living Abroad	3,795,662	3,715,483	3,866,884	4,140,641	4,461,711	4,726,208	4,921,309
Australia	1,111,203	1,100,221	1,130,210	1,118,810	1,187,150	1,289,396	1,351,846
United States of America	640,145	667,769	694,961	696,965	720,428	724,185	748,206
Canada	688,691	641,095	608,742	559,313	537,040	600,583	624,411
Spain	61,463	74,249	118,972	222,431	319,145	305,969	308,872
Ireland	184,671	124,169	131,924	207,764	249,392	258,444	278,040
New Zealand	227,889	217,660	211,532	232,954	250,997	265,014	272,071
France	102,335	105,643	108,951	143,491	171,346	188,533	188,161
South Africa	117,362	105,771	124,002	148,510	128,581	117,019	123,764
Germany	103,961	107,736	111,510	96,506	83,616	87,123	103,700
Italy	59,492	45,568	31,644	48,310	64,975	70,986	72,234
Channel Islands	54,519	53,511	56,856	56,412	55,971	59,380	59,939
Netherlands	36,211	39,070	43,294	47,459	47,297	49,549	53,007
Switzerland	22,512	26,763	31,112	35,657	40,895	48,058	49,847
Isle of Man	30,510	32,475	34,442	36,200	37,521	39,052	39,614
Cyprus	9,055	12,804	16,552	24,227	39,393	40,134	39,497
Poland	3,732	3,192	2,731	18,982	35,829	34,545	36,186
Bangladesh	9,090	16,056	23,021	27,337	31,619	33,470	34,266
Indonesia	20,883	13,817	6,751	16,969	28,276	31,304	32,026
Belgium	21,480	24,013	25,850	24,478	24,915	27,878	28,234
United Arab Emirates	12,229	12,845	14,201	13,007	24,505	26,777	27,840
Sweden	11,473	13,616	14,602	17,175	20,444	24,552	25,558
Turkey	6,483	12,029	17,619	18,156	18,709	18,992	22,442
Israel	14,958	17,066	18,218	19,593	21,205	21,869	21,329
Denmark	9,126	11,553	14,074	15,496	17,012	19,312	21,286
Norway	14,586	13,692	14,347	14,601	16,868	19,457	20,827
Chile	1,428	1,537	1,646	6,328	11,049	18,161	18,901
Portugal	6,866	8,269	10,009	14,299	16,215	18,383	18,709
China, Hong Kong SAR	11,838	13,212	14,585	15,924	17,301	17,666	17,942
Greece	34,223	23,503	13,169	15,618	18,798	17,679	17,358
Japan	10,209	12,657	16,526	15,133	16,044	16,337	16,990
Malta	5,333	6,258	7,313	8,005	9,608	12,046	12,928
Austria	6,067	6,845	7,622	8,519	9,416	11,013	12,127
Oman	4,260	5,188	4,658	4,061	4,120	9,159	10,464
Kuwait	10,010	6,908	6,491	6,443	8,002	9,394	10,237
Malaysia	3,433	3,930	4,841	6,672	9,428	9,852	10,049
Hungary	521	2,091	3,661	4,522	5,383	7,928	9,392
China	4,737	5,649	6,561	7,238	7,915	9,108	9,308
Botswana	3,289	2,034	993	3,600	6,220	8,264	8,561
Bulgaria	59	692	1,324	2,165	2,914	6,982	8,025
Zimbabwe	19,136	18,132	23,747	19,394	12,174	7,560	7,560
Libya	8,712	6,959	5,321	5,863	6,415	7,232	7,393
Finland	1,738	2,018	2,297	3,528	4,759	6,466	7,055
Luxembourg	2,355	3,041	3,760	4,047	6,546	6,854	6,946
Romania	273	354	416	701	997	5,208	6,870
Brazil	3,849	3,947	4,044	4,506	4,904	5,905	6,061
Gibraltar	3,025	3,316	3,607	4,462	5,317	5,673	5,717
Slovakia	34	1,426	3,211	3,601	4,037	4,890	5,083
India	5,063	5,508	5,952	5,500	5,047	4,866	4,817
Republic of Korea	559	855	1,425	2,197	3,840	4,774	4,810
Jamaica	5,469	5,286	5,103	4,973	4,843	4,739	4,772
Philippines	6,028	8,112	33,603	27,198	4,217	4,282	4,416
Czechia	351	526	701	2,383	3,869	4,043	4,206
Bermuda	4,590	4,726	4,883	4,436	4,008	4,061	4,024
Qatar	2,886	2,677	2,070	2,433	4,771	3,841	3,917
Mexico	2,273	3,058	3,976	3,475	3,379	3,360	3,447
Lithuania	281	315	246	2,224	3,901	3,301	3,026
Egypt	3,051	2,573	2,299	2,737	2,954	3,504	2,961
Barbados	2,988	3,262	3,535	2,955	2,389	2,509	2,522
Trinidad and Tobago	2,157	1,958	2,090	2,243	2,286	2,368	2,383
Ecuador	719	807	895	1,056	1,484	2,158	2,222
Brunei Darussalam	1,996	1,961	1,926	1,969	2,012	2,055	2,172
Thailand	21	36	59	951	1,913	2,068	2,128
Panama	319	314	329	999	1,717	2,017	2,082
Bahamas	1,964	1,834	1,705	1,772	1,839	1,993	2,077
Cayman Islands	1,049	1,596	2,143	2,058	1,969	1,944	1,995
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)	1,881	1,761	1,635	1,679	1,722	1,803	1,831
Uganda	1,071	1,052	1,264	1,256	1,249	1,241	1,754
Russian Federation	899	865	800	1,267	1,708	1,741	1,742
Bahrain	1,614	1,493	1,378	1,602	2,181	1,657	1,700
Papua New Guinea	2,192	2,245	1,680	1,880	1,594	1,616	1,700
Peru	1,185	1,034	1,209	1,415	1,534	1,658	1,699
Namibia	2,540	2,429	2,256	1,783	1,718	1,625	1,594
Malawi	769	1,639	1,578	1,504	1,478	1,460	1,486
Iceland	647	684	721	918	1,113	1,324	1,443
Ghana	972	969	1,084	1,524	1,130	1,339	1,399
Zambia	1,987	1,434	1,036	1,154	1,286	1,335	1,348
Colombia	991	1,009	1,026	1,004	1,155	1,293	1,322
United Republic of Tanzania	682	866	912	1,015	1,040	1,061	1,264
Morocco	828	760	801	822	920	1,199	1,243
Sri Lanka	48	182	317	594	1,163	1,184	1,193
Viet Nam	256	1,230	3,613	2,803	927	1,119	1,169
Latvia	117	167	218	803	1,369	1,148	1,111
Antigua and Barbuda	623	720	817	876	935	994	1,013
Saint Lucia	405	547	751	874	920	972	980
Argentina	2,391	2,184	1,978	1,459	940	943	978
Andorra	1,043	975	907	1,085	1,125	988	963
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)	580	619	651	714	776	903	939
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	664	640	704	650	798	872	876
British Virgin Islands	440	517	594	680	714	800	834
Jordan	465	724	981	1,417	1,822	784	814
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	682	719	748	763	781	795	798
Algeria	2,060	1,430	800	631	693	764	793
Croatia	182	186	171	419	666	670	652
Serbia	79	504	686	677	662	647	642
Dominica	230	304	362	446	543	633	638
Sierra Leone	611	595	580	567	563	561	585
Guyana	131	211	290	390	490	574	579
Costa Rica	451	339	397	260	512	519	522
Dominican Republic	581	646	710	586	457	482	492
Estonia	31	48	64	295	524	468	463
Belarus	340	409	478	460	441	461	459
Uruguay	535	523	513	475	440	454	458
Mauritius	694	450	458	415	395	454	456
Turks and Caicos Islands	246	316	386	398	410	416	449
Belize	306	297	288	318	347	403	442
Anguilla	197	254	311	358	390	418	426
Guadeloupe	166	222	277	340	402	417	420
Saint Helena	274	282	291	332	374	397	398
Fiji	759	646	528	308	331	341	344
Tajikistan	477	387	333	321	328	325	322
Dem. People’s Republic of Korea	188	205	221	249	276	304	307
Seychelles	274	223	173	216	259	290	293
Cameroon	..	..	..	256	204	260	276
Guatemala	125	134	142	168	194	223	232
Liberia	1,146	1,119	1,099	499	230	263	227
Lebanon	212	329	445	349	252	212	208
Paraguay	140	169	198	188	179	174	178
Puerto Rico	336	356	377	295	176	173	168
Martinique	67	101	135	141	148	153	152
Vanuatu	239	152	95	100	107	108	109
Maldives	94	94	89	101	102	103	107
Montserrat	156	129	94	97	100	105	106
Faeroe Islands	139	92	88	86	92	100	103
Honduras	78	77	76	75	73	102	103
Cook Islands	49	51	53	70	86	95	96
Cambodia	43	113	182	142	102	92	94
El Salvador	135	106	77	82	86	90	90
Mongolia	65	71	79	75	80	87	89
Montenegro	..	..	..	..	98	103	88
French Polynesia	76	83	89	92	89	84	85
Liechtenstein	27	37	47	51	57	70	72
Nicaragua	46	37	48	62	66	71	72
Caribbean Netherlands	50	104	158	168	49	55	57
Eritrea	34	38	43	49	56	56	56
Sint Maarten (Dutch part)	..	..	..	25	50	53	54
Cabo Verde	14	22	29	40	50	52	53
Cuba	110	84	57	57	52	47	46
Solomon Islands	85	85	81	59	42	39	38
Bhutan	17	19	22	28	34	36	36
Georgia	..	..	34	32	32	33	33
Samoa	47	41	35	33	29	27	26
Curaçao	..	..	..	..	23	24	24
Greenland	32	22	24	16	19	15	15
Slovenia	75	106	139	201	15	11	12
Kiribati	23	18	13	11	9	8	8
Guinea	..	..	..	..	..	8	7

How many foreign nationals living in the UK?

Moreover, during 1990-2017, the number of foreign nationals living in the UK has increased from 3.65 m to 8.84 m. Accordingly, the percentage of migrants in the UK has nearly doubled from 6.38% to 13.36% during 1990-2017.

Year	Migrants Living in the UK	UK Population	Migrants as Percentage of Total UK Population
1990	3,650,286	57,183,331	6.38%
1995	4,155,293	57,978,321	7.17%
2000	4,730,165	58,950,847	8.02%
2005	5,926,156	60,286,754	9.83%
2010	7,604,583	63,306,843	12.01%
2015	8,411,021	65,397,080	12.86%
2017	8,841,717	66,181,585	13.36%

Number of Migrants in the UK by Country of Origin

Apparently, in 2017, as many as 8.84 m foreign nationals were living in the UK. And Polish, Indian, Pakistani, Irish and German nationals top the list of foreign nationals living in the UK.

Country of Origin	Total	Percentage
Total Number of Migrants in the UK 2017	8,841,717	100.00%
Poland	874,291	9.89%
India	836,524	9.46%
Pakistan	529,324	5.99%
Ireland	402,089	4.55%
Germany	300,983	3.40%
Romania	231,358	2.62%
Bangladesh	228,353	2.58%
South Africa	210,470	2.38%
Nigeria	209,417	2.37%
China	207,278	2.34%
United States of America	190,491	2.15%
Italy	170,454	1.93%
France	160,991	1.82%
Lithuania	158,854	1.80%
Portugal	147,271	1.67%
Jamaica	144,196	1.63%
Kenya	141,020	1.59%
Philippines	138,905	1.57%
Sri Lanka	138,904	1.57%
Australia	131,542	1.49%
Spain	131,496	1.49%
Somalia	119,953	1.36%
Zimbabwe	117,873	1.33%
Ghana	113,637	1.29%
Latvia	98,882	1.12%
China, Hong Kong SAR	98,384	1.11%
Canada	91,545	1.04%
Iran (Islamic Republic of)	90,499	1.02%
Slovakia	89,422	1.01%
Hungary	84,155	0.95%
Afghanistan	80,160	0.91%
Turkey	75,791	0.86%
Iraq	74,719	0.85%
Netherlands	72,604	0.82%
Bulgaria	72,586	0.82%
Nepal	70,487	0.80%
Malaysia	65,253	0.74%
Cyprus	63,160	0.71%
Uganda	63,140	0.71%
New Zealand	62,091	0.70%
Greece	59,959	0.68%
Brazil	55,772	0.63%
Czechia	51,552	0.58%
Russian Federation	48,399	0.55%
Singapore	46,300	0.52%
Japan	45,243	0.51%
United Republic of Tanzania	43,139	0.49%
Thailand	41,046	0.46%
Egypt	39,980	0.45%
Belgium	36,822	0.42%
Mauritius	35,788	0.40%
Morocco	35,765	0.40%
Sweden	32,624	0.37%
Sierra Leone	32,613	0.37%
Saudi Arabia	31,574	0.36%
Viet Nam	30,518	0.35%
Albania	30,157	0.34%
Other North	29,599	0.33%
Malta	29,466	0.33%
Denmark	29,459	0.33%
Zambia	28,414	0.32%
Colombia	22,703	0.26%
Algeria	21,995	0.25%
Trinidad and Tobago	20,796	0.24%
Guyana	19,233	0.22%
Ukraine	19,197	0.22%
Austria	17,790	0.20%
Switzerland	17,594	0.20%
Democratic Republic of the Congo	17,194	0.19%
Barbados	16,620	0.19%
Channel Islands	16,350	0.18%
Sudan	16,200	0.18%
Israel	16,077	0.18%
Yemen	15,910	0.18%
Eritrea	15,604	0.18%
Dem. People’s Republic of Korea	15,329	0.17%
Norway	14,952	0.17%
Malawi	14,652	0.17%
Libya	14,499	0.16%
Lebanon	14,043	0.16%
Ethiopia	13,655	0.15%
Angola	12,882	0.15%
Other South	12,784	0.14%
Finland	11,745	0.13%
Kuwait	11,523	0.13%
Myanmar	10,710	0.12%
United Arab Emirates	10,095	0.11%
Gambia	9,998	0.11%
Gibraltar	9,801	0.11%
Argentina	9,296	0.11%
Cameroon	9,026	0.10%
Isle of Man	8,681	0.10%
Mexico	8,610	0.10%
Indonesia	8,481	0.10%
Grenada	8,206	0.09%
Syrian Arab Republic	8,158	0.09%
Saint Lucia	8,064	0.09%
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)	8,062	0.09%
Congo	7,838	0.09%
Ecuador	7,725	0.09%
Estonia	7,674	0.09%
Croatia	7,402	0.08%
Serbia	7,385	0.08%
Côte d’Ivoire	6,997	0.08%
Bosnia and Herzegovina	6,943	0.08%
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	6,565	0.07%
Montserrat	6,417	0.07%
Peru	6,383	0.07%
Chile	6,290	0.07%
Dominica	5,616	0.06%
Republic of Korea	5,548	0.06%
Fiji	5,537	0.06%
Tunisia	5,415	0.06%
Mozambique	5,221	0.06%
Jordan	5,182	0.06%
Bahrain	5,133	0.06%
Saint Kitts and Nevis	4,974	0.06%
Brunei Darussalam	4,698	0.05%
Kazakhstan	4,452	0.05%
Burundi	3,951	0.04%
Rwanda	3,919	0.04%
Belarus	3,881	0.04%
Bermuda	3,772	0.04%
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)	3,316	0.04%
Antigua and Barbuda	3,275	0.04%
Seychelles	3,178	0.04%
Liberia	3,151	0.04%
Botswana	2,880	0.03%
Oman	2,813	0.03%
Republic of Moldova	2,801	0.03%
Georgia	2,777	0.03%
TFYR Macedonia	2,598	0.03%
Azerbaijan	2,562	0.03%
Saint Helena	2,391	0.03%
Uzbekistan	2,347	0.03%
Qatar	2,218	0.03%
Cuba	2,184	0.02%
Namibia	2,171	0.02%
Guinea-Bissau	2,108	0.02%
Guinea	2,072	0.02%
Slovenia	1,883	0.02%
Iceland	1,823	0.02%
Senegal	1,750	0.02%
Luxembourg	1,714	0.02%
Bahamas	1,697	0.02%
Timor-Leste	1,646	0.02%
Mongolia	1,492	0.02%
Armenia	1,467	0.02%
Togo	1,428	0.02%
Swaziland	1,307	0.01%
Dominican Republic	1,217	0.01%
Uruguay	1,206	0.01%
Belize	1,189	0.01%
Cambodia	1,069	0.01%
Cabo Verde	1,048	0.01%
Papua New Guinea	982	0.01%
Kyrgyzstan	927	0.01%
Montenegro	920	0.01%
Madagascar	918	0.01%
Guatemala	859	0.01%
Sao Tome and Principe	842	0.01%
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	793	0.01%
El Salvador	776	0.01%
Cayman Islands	748	0.01%
Lesotho	696	0.01%
Paraguay	668	0.01%
Turkmenistan	642	0.01%
Costa Rica	637	0.01%
Panama	629	0.01%
Lao People’s Democratic Republic	586	0.01%
Honduras	559	0.01%
Aruba	555	0.01%
Benin	555	0.01%
Anguilla	477	0.01%
Djibouti	398	0.00%
Suriname	389	0.00%
Bhutan	379	0.00%
Tajikistan	372	0.00%
Monaco	352	0.00%
Faeroe Islands	350	0.00%
Mali	336	0.00%
Nicaragua	332	0.00%
Maldives	329	0.00%
Gabon	321	0.00%
Chad	303	0.00%
Solomon Islands	297	0.00%
Haiti	278	0.00%
Equatorial Guinea	255	0.00%
Tonga	243	0.00%
British Virgin Islands	238	0.00%
Burkina Faso	193	0.00%
Mauritania	190	0.00%
Samoa	190	0.00%
Niger	177	0.00%
Kiribati	148	0.00%
Central African Republic	139	0.00%
Vanuatu	137	0.00%
Comoros	126	0.00%
United States Virgin Islands	109	0.00%
New Caledonia	98	0.00%
Turks and Caicos Islands	89	0.00%
French Polynesia	70	0.00%
Andorra	51	0.00%
Greenland	48	0.00%
Liechtenstein	25	0.00%
Nauru	24	0.00%
Réunion	10	0.00%

READ BLOG POSTS UK VISA & APPEAL SERVICES
UK VISA ENQUIRY PROCEDURE CONTACT IMMIGRATION SOLICITORS

Related: Requirements to Naturalise as a British Citizen u/s 6 of 1981 Act, Types of British Citizenship, Naturalisation and Registration Grants, and British Nationality Act 1981

Perhaps, to know more about UK Visa and Immigration please refer: UK Priority Visa Service, UK Settlement Visa Processing Time, UK Tourist Visa Processing Time After Biometrics, UK Visa Delay Reasons, UK Visa Reapply or Appeal, UK Immigration Appeal Waiting Time and UK Visa Appeal Solicitors