Almost 80% of people who emigrated from the UK are happy with their decision to move overseas, according to the UKForex Happiness Survey among 1,122 British expatriates. This compares with just 51.77% of respondents who were happy with their previous life in the UK.
The happiest people surveyed live in Spain, with 91% of emigrants saying that they were happy or very happy with their lives there. New Zealand emigrants were also relatively happy, with 88% of respondents satisfied with their new life. Canadian and Australian emigrants followed close behind on 86.4% and 84.2% respectively. The unhappiest respondents live in France and the United States, with 18.6% and 13.8% respectively disappointed with new life.
According to studies by the Institute for Public Policy Research, about 5.5 million British-born people live abroad, which is one of the reasons for which expatriate marketing has become a high priority for many British service providers. The UKForex survey found that 35.3% of surveyed UK expats cite ‘better quality of life’ as the main reason for moving to other countries. The other top five reasons given for moving to particular destinations are:
- 12.3% for new experience/adventure
- 9.3% for new job/job relocation
- 6.3% to start a new life
- 2.4% because cost of living in Britain too high
- 2.2% for family/friends in Australia
Interestingly, the results of the survey are quite different from a recent poll among German expatriates from Just Landed. According to this poll, only 22% of German expatriates are “very happy” abroad, while 71% plan to go back to Germany at some point.