Top 10 areas of net population loss from emigration

Office of National Statistics: Population figures

MIDDLE England is seeking a new life abroad, and commuter towns in the south and northwest are the emigration hotspots.

A Sunday Times analysis, based on figures from the Office for National Statistics, ranks local authority areas according to net international emigration – people moving abroad minus immigrants. Many middle-class areas are bucking the overall trend of rising population caused by high immigration – 574,000 people moved to Britain in the year to July, far outnumbering the 389,000 who left.

In some areas, young families are moving abroad for a better quality of life while those in their fifties cash in on high house prices. Net emigration is greatest in Wirral, Merseyside, which has seen 3,300 more people leaving than arriving over the past five years.

Dorset is the county most sharply affected, with four of its local authorities in the top 10. Christchurch, on the edge of the New Forest, has lost nearly 3% of its 45,000 population because of overseas emigration.

“We appear to be seeing middle England bailing out,” said David Coleman, professor of demography at Oxford University. “One simple answer would be that this is fiftysomethings selling up and moving to Spain to retire, but there would also be younger couples moving abroad to work.”

By measuring net international emigration, the analysis removes the distorting effects of foreign workers or students arriving in some areas and leaving two or three years later.

In Wirral, more than 7,500 people moved to countries such as Australia, South Africa and France in 2001-6. Over the same period, just 4,200 immigrants arrived.

The Institute for Public Policy Research estimated last year that 5.5m Britons were living abroad and that a further 1m would leave the UK by 2011. Australia, Spain and America were the top three destinations.

Additional reporting: Valerie Jones

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