Original research
Where British expats actually live
The United Nations estimates that 4,804,944 UK-born people were living outside the United Kingdom at mid-2024. These are the 22 places most of them call home, every figure read straight from the official dataset and independently re-verified.
Last reviewed 17/07/2026. UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024, reference date 1 July 2024. Reusable under CC BY 3.0 IGO with attribution.
The headline numbers
4.80m
UK-born people living abroad (mid-2024)
1.11m
live in Australia, the runaway number one
2.43m
are in the top three (Australia, USA, Canada)
246k
British nationals emigrated in the year to December 2025 (ONS)
The top 22 destinations
| # | Country | UK-born residents | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australia | 1,107,102 | Corroborated by the ABS: 970,950 England-born residents alone at 30 June 2025 (the ABS counts England-born separately, so the whole-UK figure is higher). |
| 2 | United States | 894,789 | |
| 3 | Canada | 427,526 | |
| 4 | Spain | 294,986 | Spain's own census counts 266,462 UK nationals at 1 January 2025; the gap reflects born-versus-nationality definitions and register coverage. |
| 5 | Ireland | 293,559 | Northern Ireland-born residents count as UK-born here. |
| 6 | New Zealand | 254,524 | |
| 7 | Poland | 184,964 | Place-of-birth counting: this plausibly reflects UK-born children of Polish families who returned, not retiree emigration. |
| 8 | France | 163,042 | |
| 9 | ThailandUK nationals | 116,582 | Derived from data on foreign citizens, so this counts UK nationals rather than UK-born. |
| 10 | Italy | 67,246 | |
| 11 | Netherlands | 62,657 | |
| 12 | Channel IslandsCrown Dependency | 61,713 | Crown Dependency, not a foreign country; the origin figure also includes births in other British territories. |
| 13 | South Africa | 55,144 | |
| 14 | Malta | 54,739 | |
| 15 | Romania | 48,738 | Largely UK-born children of Romanian families who returned, on the place-of-birth reading. |
| 16 | Switzerland | 48,706 | |
| 17 | Bangladesh | 45,091 | Largely UK-born children of Bangladeshi families, on the place-of-birth reading. |
| 18 | Türkiye | 40,743 | |
| 19 | Cyprus | 38,082 | |
| 20 | Isle of ManCrown Dependency | 34,715 | Crown Dependency, not a foreign country; the origin figure also includes births in other British territories. |
| 21 | Sweden | 34,445 | |
| 22 | United Arab EmiratesUK nationals | 27,318 | Counts UK nationals (citizen-based data) and is widely considered conservative for the UAE. |
UK-born migrant stock at 1 July 2024, UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024, Table 1. Rows tagged UK nationals derive from citizen-based data; countries with a linked name have a full Horizon moving-abroad tax guide.
Cross-checked against national sources
- ONS: Long-term international migration, provisional, year ending December 2025
The flow side of the story: an estimated 246,000 British nationals emigrated long term in the year ending December 2025 against 110,000 arriving, a provisional net outflow of 136,000 British nationals in one year.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics: Australia's population by country of birth (30 June 2025)
National corroboration of the number one destination: 970,950 England-born residents, the second largest overseas-born group in Australia.
- INE (Spain): Annual Population Census, first results at 1 January 2025
Spain's official count of UK nationals: 266,462 at 1 January 2025, down 2.2% on a year earlier, making the UK Spain's sixth largest foreign nationality.
Methodology
- Measure: international migrant stock counts people living outside their country of birth at a single point in time. Figures are the stock of UK-born people resident in each destination at 1 July 2024, read directly from Table 1 of the UN workbook (origin United Kingdom, code 826, both sexes combined).
- Edition: International Migrant Stock 2024 (POP/DB/MIG/Stock/Rev.2024), the latest edition as of July 2026, covering 1990 to 2024 for 233 countries and areas.
- Data types: most rows derive from foreign-born population data (a true UK-born measure). Thailand and the United Arab Emirates derive from foreign-citizen data, so they measure UK nationality rather than birthplace and are flagged in the table.
- The 22 rows are the 22 largest destinations exactly as ranked in the dataset. Two are British Crown Dependencies (the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man), flagged in the table; excluding them leaves a clean top 20 of sovereign foreign countries.
Read the numbers honestly
- Stock, not flow: these are snapshots of people resident abroad at 1 July 2024, not annual emigration. For flows, see the ONS series cited below.
- Born versus citizenship: most figures count UK-born people of any nationality, which excludes British citizens born abroad and includes non-British people born in the UK. The often-quoted 'around 5.5 million Brits abroad' refers to British citizens, a different and larger concept than the 4,804,944 UK-born total here.
- Estimates, not counts: UN figures interpolate from censuses, registers and surveys of varying dates and quality. Treat values as best official estimates.
- Return-migration effect: high rankings for Poland, Romania and Bangladesh plausibly reflect UK-born children of migrant families who moved to those countries rather than everyday emigration; that composition point is interpretation, not stated in the source.
- National sources will not match exactly: differences in definition, register coverage and reference date are expected wherever a national figure sits alongside the UN estimate.
Citing this page
Journalists and researchers are welcome to reuse this compilation with attribution to Horizon UK Tax Solutions and the United Nations (International Migrant Stock 2024, CC BY 3.0 IGO). Link to this page as the compiled source. See also our UK Leavers Tax Index, which compares the tax systems of the destinations above.
Joining them? Get the tax right first
Every destination above has a different tax deal waiting, and the UK side (residency, split year, property, pensions) is the same puzzle wherever you go. We plan the whole move on a fixed fee agreed upfront.