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 the British Nationality Act 1981 and immigration rules.

British Citizens Living Abroad have increased to 4.92 million

According to the 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 the 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 the 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.

S. No.	Year	1990	2017
British Citizens Living Abroad		3,795,662	4,921,309
1	Australia	1,111,203	1,351,846
2	United States of America	640,145	748,206
3	Canada	688,691	624,411
4	Spain	61,463	308,872
5	Ireland	184,671	278,040
6	New Zealand	227,889	272,071
7	France	102,335	188,161
8	South Africa	117,362	123,764
9	Germany	103,961	103,700
10	Italy	59,492	72,234
11	Channel Islands	54,519	59,939
12	Netherlands	36,211	53,007
13	Switzerland	22,512	49,847
14	Isle of Man	30,510	39,614
15	Cyprus	9,055	39,497
16	Poland	3,732	36,186
17	Bangladesh	9,090	34,266
18	Indonesia	20,883	32,026
19	Belgium	21,480	28,234
20	United Arab Emirates	12,229	27,840
21	Sweden	11,473	25,558
22	Turkey	6,483	22,442
23	Israel	14,958	21,329
24	Denmark	9,126	21,286
25	Norway	14,586	20,827
26	Chile	1,428	18,901
27	Portugal	6,866	18,709
28	China, Hong Kong SAR	11,838	17,942
29	Greece	34,223	17,358
30	Japan	10,209	16,990
31	Malta	5,333	12,928
32	Austria	6,067	12,127
33	Oman	4,260	10,464
34	Kuwait	10,010	10,237
35	Malaysia	3,433	10,049
36	Hungary	521	9,392
37	China	4,737	9,308
38	Botswana	3,289	8,561
39	Bulgaria	59	8,025
40	Zimbabwe	19,136	7,560
41	Libya	8,712	7,393
42	Finland	1,738	7,055
43	Luxembourg	2,355	6,946
44	Romania	273	6,870
45	Brazil	3,849	6,061
46	Gibraltar	3,025	5,717
47	Slovakia	34	5,083
48	India	5,063	4,817
49	Republic of Korea	559	4,810
50	Jamaica	5,469	4,772
51	Philippines	6,028	4,416
52	Czechia	351	4,206
53	Bermuda	4,590	4,024
54	Qatar	2,886	3,917
55	Mexico	2,273	3,447
56	Lithuania	281	3,026
57	Egypt	3,051	2,961
58	Barbados	2,988	2,522
59	Trinidad and Tobago	2,157	2,383
60	Ecuador	719	2,222
61	Brunei Darussalam	1,996	2,172
62	Thailand	21	2,128
63	Panama	319	2,082
64	Bahamas	1,964	2,077
65	Cayman Islands	1,049	1,995
66	Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)	1,881	1,831
67	Uganda	1,071	1,754
68	Russian Federation	899	1,742
69	Bahrain	1,614	1,700
70	Papua New Guinea	2,192	1,700
71	Peru	1,185	1,699
72	Namibia	2,540	1,594
73	Malawi	769	1,486
74	Iceland	647	1,443
75	Ghana	972	1,399
76	Zambia	1,987	1,348
77	Colombia	991	1,322
78	United Republic of Tanzania	682	1,264
79	Morocco	828	1,243
80	Sri Lanka	48	1,193
81	Viet Nam	256	1,169
82	Latvia	117	1,111
83	Antigua and Barbuda	623	1,013
84	Saint Lucia	405	980
85	Argentina	2,391	978
86	Andorra	1,043	963
87	Bolivia (Plurinational State of)	580	939
88	Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	664	876
89	British Virgin Islands	440	834
90	Jordan	465	814
91	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	682	798
92	Algeria	2,060	793
93	Croatia	182	652
94	Serbia	79	642
95	Dominica	230	638
96	Sierra Leone	611	585
97	Guyana	131	579
98	Costa Rica	451	522
99	Dominican Republic	581	492
100	Estonia	31	463
101	Belarus	340	459
102	Uruguay	535	458
103	Mauritius	694	456
104	Turks and Caicos Islands	246	449
105	Belize	306	442
106	Anguilla	197	426
107	Guadeloupe	166	420
108	Saint Helena	274	398
109	Fiji	759	344
110	Tajikistan	477	322
111	Dem. People’s Republic of Korea	188	307
112	Seychelles	274	293
113	Cameroon	..	276
114	Guatemala	125	232
115	Liberia	1,146	227
116	Lebanon	212	208
117	Paraguay	140	178
118	Puerto Rico	336	168
119	Martinique	67	152
120	Vanuatu	239	109
121	Maldives	94	107
122	Montserrat	156	106
123	Faeroe Islands	139	103
124	Honduras	78	103
125	Cook Islands	49	96
126	Cambodia	43	94
127	El Salvador	135	90
128	Mongolia	65	89
129	Montenegro	..	88
130	French Polynesia	76	85
131	Liechtenstein	27	72
132	Nicaragua	46	72
133	Caribbean Netherlands	50	57
134	Eritrea	34	56
135	Sint Maarten (Dutch part)	..	54
136	Cabo Verde	14	53
137	Cuba	110	46
138	Solomon Islands	85	38
139	Bhutan	17	36
140	Georgia	..	33
141	Samoa	47	26
142	Curaçao	..	24
143	Greenland	32	15
144	Slovenia	75	12
145	Kiribati	23	8
146	Guinea	..	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 in the UK	UK Population	Migrants %age
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.

S. No.	Country of Origin	Total	Percentage
Total Migrants in the UK 2017		8,841,717	100.00%
1	Poland	874,291	9.89%
2	India	836,524	9.46%
3	Pakistan	529,324	5.99%
4	Ireland	402,089	4.55%
5	Germany	300,983	3.40%
6	Romania	231,358	2.62%
7	Bangladesh	228,353	2.58%
8	South Africa	210,470	2.38%
9	Nigeria	209,417	2.37%
10	China	207,278	2.34%
11	United States of America	190,491	2.15%
12	Italy	170,454	1.93%
13	France	160,991	1.82%
14	Lithuania	158,854	1.80%
15	Portugal	147,271	1.67%
16	Jamaica	144,196	1.63%
17	Kenya	141,020	1.59%
18	Philippines	138,905	1.57%
19	Sri Lanka	138,904	1.57%
20	Australia	131,542	1.49%
21	Spain	131,496	1.49%
22	Somalia	119,953	1.36%
23	Zimbabwe	117,873	1.33%
24	Ghana	113,637	1.29%
25	Latvia	98,882	1.12%
26	China, Hong Kong SAR	98,384	1.11%
27	Canada	91,545	1.04%
28	Iran (Islamic Republic of)	90,499	1.02%
29	Slovakia	89,422	1.01%
30	Hungary	84,155	0.95%
31	Afghanistan	80,160	0.91%
32	Turkey	75,791	0.86%
33	Iraq	74,719	0.85%
34	Netherlands	72,604	0.82%
35	Bulgaria	72,586	0.82%
36	Nepal	70,487	0.80%
37	Malaysia	65,253	0.74%
38	Cyprus	63,160	0.71%
39	Uganda	63,140	0.71%
40	New Zealand	62,091	0.70%
41	Greece	59,959	0.68%
42	Brazil	55,772	0.63%
43	Czechia	51,552	0.58%
44	Russian Federation	48,399	0.55%
45	Singapore	46,300	0.52%
46	Japan	45,243	0.51%
47	United Republic of Tanzania	43,139	0.49%
48	Thailand	41,046	0.46%
49	Egypt	39,980	0.45%
50	Belgium	36,822	0.42%
51	Mauritius	35,788	0.40%
52	Morocco	35,765	0.40%
53	Sweden	32,624	0.37%
54	Sierra Leone	32,613	0.37%
55	Saudi Arabia	31,574	0.36%
56	Viet Nam	30,518	0.35%
57	Albania	30,157	0.34%
58	Other North	29,599	0.33%
59	Malta	29,466	0.33%
60	Denmark	29,459	0.33%
61	Zambia	28,414	0.32%
62	Colombia	22,703	0.26%
63	Algeria	21,995	0.25%
64	Trinidad and Tobago	20,796	0.24%
65	Guyana	19,233	0.22%
66	Ukraine	19,197	0.22%
67	Austria	17,790	0.20%
68	Switzerland	17,594	0.20%
69	Democratic Republic of the Congo	17,194	0.19%
70	Barbados	16,620	0.19%
71	Channel Islands	16,350	0.18%
72	Sudan	16,200	0.18%
73	Israel	16,077	0.18%
74	Yemen	15,910	0.18%
75	Eritrea	15,604	0.18%
76	Dem. People’s Republic of Korea	15,329	0.17%
77	Norway	14,952	0.17%
78	Malawi	14,652	0.17%
79	Libya	14,499	0.16%
80	Lebanon	14,043	0.16%
81	Ethiopia	13,655	0.15%
82	Angola	12,882	0.15%
83	Other South	12,784	0.14%
84	Finland	11,745	0.13%
85	Kuwait	11,523	0.13%
86	Myanmar	10,710	0.12%
87	United Arab Emirates	10,095	0.11%
88	Gambia	9,998	0.11%
89	Gibraltar	9,801	0.11%
90	Argentina	9,296	0.11%
91	Cameroon	9,026	0.10%
92	Isle of Man	8,681	0.10%
93	Mexico	8,610	0.10%
94	Indonesia	8,481	0.10%
95	Grenada	8,206	0.09%
96	Syrian Arab Republic	8,158	0.09%
97	Saint Lucia	8,064	0.09%
98	Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)	8,062	0.09%
99	Congo	7,838	0.09%
100	Ecuador	7,725	0.09%
101	Estonia	7,674	0.09%
102	Croatia	7,402	0.08%
103	Serbia	7,385	0.08%
104	Côte d’Ivoire	6,997	0.08%
105	Bosnia and Herzegovina	6,943	0.08%
106	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	6,565	0.07%
107	Montserrat	6,417	0.07%
108	Peru	6,383	0.07%
109	Chile	6,290	0.07%
110	Dominica	5,616	0.06%
111	Republic of Korea	5,548	0.06%
112	Fiji	5,537	0.06%
113	Tunisia	5,415	0.06%
114	Mozambique	5,221	0.06%
115	Jordan	5,182	0.06%
116	Bahrain	5,133	0.06%
117	Saint Kitts and Nevis	4,974	0.06%
118	Brunei Darussalam	4,698	0.05%
119	Kazakhstan	4,452	0.05%
120	Burundi	3,951	0.04%
121	Rwanda	3,919	0.04%
122	Belarus	3,881	0.04%
123	Bermuda	3,772	0.04%
124	Bolivia (Plurinational State of)	3,316	0.04%
125	Antigua and Barbuda	3,275	0.04%
126	Seychelles	3,178	0.04%
127	Liberia	3,151	0.04%
128	Botswana	2,880	0.03%
129	Oman	2,813	0.03%
130	Republic of Moldova	2,801	0.03%
131	Georgia	2,777	0.03%
132	TFYR Macedonia	2,598	0.03%
133	Azerbaijan	2,562	0.03%
134	Saint Helena	2,391	0.03%
135	Uzbekistan	2,347	0.03%
136	Qatar	2,218	0.03%
137	Cuba	2,184	0.02%
138	Namibia	2,171	0.02%
139	Guinea-Bissau	2,108	0.02%
140	Guinea	2,072	0.02%
141	Slovenia	1,883	0.02%
142	Iceland	1,823	0.02%
143	Senegal	1,750	0.02%
144	Luxembourg	1,714	0.02%
145	Bahamas	1,697	0.02%
146	Timor-Leste	1,646	0.02%
147	Mongolia	1,492	0.02%
148	Armenia	1,467	0.02%
149	Togo	1,428	0.02%
150	Swaziland	1,307	0.01%
151	Dominican Republic	1,217	0.01%
152	Uruguay	1,206	0.01%
153	Belize	1,189	0.01%
154	Cambodia	1,069	0.01%
155	Cabo Verde	1,048	0.01%
156	Papua New Guinea	982	0.01%
157	Kyrgyzstan	927	0.01%
158	Montenegro	920	0.01%
159	Madagascar	918	0.01%
160	Guatemala	859	0.01%
161	Sao Tome and Principe	842	0.01%
162	Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	793	0.01%
163	El Salvador	776	0.01%
164	Cayman Islands	748	0.01%
165	Lesotho	696	0.01%
166	Paraguay	668	0.01%
167	Turkmenistan	642	0.01%
168	Costa Rica	637	0.01%
169	Panama	629	0.01%
170	Lao People’s Democratic Republic	586	0.01%
171	Honduras	559	0.01%
172	Aruba	555	0.01%
173	Benin	555	0.01%
174	Anguilla	477	0.01%
175	Djibouti	398	0.00%
176	Suriname	389	0.00%
177	Bhutan	379	0.00%
178	Tajikistan	372	0.00%
179	Monaco	352	0.00%
180	Faeroe Islands	350	0.00%
181	Mali	336	0.00%
182	Nicaragua	332	0.00%
183	Maldives	329	0.00%
184	Gabon	321	0.00%
185	Chad	303	0.00%
186	Solomon Islands	297	0.00%
187	Haiti	278	0.00%
188	Equatorial Guinea	255	0.00%
189	Tonga	243	0.00%
190	British Virgin Islands	238	0.00%
191	Burkina Faso	193	0.00%
192	Mauritania	190	0.00%
193	Samoa	190	0.00%
194	Niger	177	0.00%
195	Kiribati	148	0.00%
196	Central African Republic	139	0.00%
197	Vanuatu	137	0.00%
198	Comoros	126	0.00%
199	United States Virgin Islands	109	0.00%
200	New Caledonia	98	0.00%
201	Turks and Caicos Islands	89	0.00%
202	French Polynesia	70	0.00%
203	Andorra	51	0.00%
204	Greenland	48	0.00%
205	Liechtenstein	25	0.00%
206	Nauru	24	0.00%
207	Réunion	10	0.00%

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