You asked

​​Would if be possible to find out which countries have the highest levels of British ex-patriates?

We said

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request about countries with the highest levels of British ex-patriates.

As part of our Living Abroad series we published data about Britons living in the EU. For this publication we used sources such as Eurostat and the statistics offices of individual EU nations as we don't hold all the data ourselves.

We publish statistics about the number of British citizens we estimate move abroad as long-term international migrants each year, the latest of which are available in the recently published Migration Statistics Quarterly Report. Citizenship group by sex and age by country of last or next residence will tell you how many British citizens emigrated abroad and the countries to which they moved. We don't know whether they stayed in those countries, took out non-UK citizenship or moved on elsewhere.

The United Nations (UN) migrant stock tables contain estimates of the total number of international migrants by country or area by sex, age and origin. Estimates refer to 1 July of the reference year. Most of the data used to estimate the international migrant stock by country or area were obtained from population censuses. Additionally, population registers and nationally representative surveys provided information on the number and composition of international migrants. Table 1 lists the top 10 countries with migrants who have a UK origin for 2019.

Source: UN Migrant Stock, 2019

When accessing any of our files please read the 'notes, terms and conditions' contained within them. Please do not hesitate to contact us directly on pop.info@ons.gov.uk if you require anything further.