Data Debunks Myth Of Spain As Elderly Expat Retirement Haven

Contrary to the widely-held belief that Brit expat communities in Europe mostly contain retirees, statistics suggest two-thirds of UK expatriates are below retirement age.

Recently-released data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics shows 66 per cent of the estimated 784,900 Britons living in Europe are between the ages of 64 and 15, with more living in Spain than in any other EU member state. In addition, the data shows Spain is home to 293,500 long-term British expatriates, and the UK has fewer emigrants living In Europe than any other European state.

For expatriate Britons, France is the second-most popular destination with 152,900 UK citizens in residence. Germany takes second place at 96,500 and the Netherlands comes in third with just 45,300. The data forms part of the last in a series of reports entitled 'Living Abroad - British residents living in the EU', with the reports specifically designed to give a true picture of Brits in EU member states likely to be affected by Brexit.

Ireland was excluded from the data as Britons in Ireland and Irish expats in the UK are likely to be excluded from any Brexit disruption of human rights. In addition, UN migrant data has been used to demonstrate that, as regards emigration, Britain is Europe’s least Europhile nation, followed by Malta and Croatia. Only 26 per cent of all migrants born in Britain are living in another EU member state, as against 44 per cent of German emigrants and 49 per cent of French expats, all of whom moved to another European Union country.

Unsurprisingly, over half of Britain’s emigrants decided on emigration to another English-speaking country, with Australia and New Zealand the preferred option followed by Canada and the USA. Spain is still the most-favoured destination, followed by Portugal and Bulgaria, a surprise favourite due to its cheap Black Sea properties. Given the possible difficulties of emigrating to a European Union country post-Brexit and the increasingly stringent financial and other requirements in popular non-EU countries, the number of expatriate Brits may well suffer a severe decline.