Emigration from the UK is reaching record levels. People are leaving on mass seeking warmer climates, cheaper housing, lower taxes and better opportunities. According to survey by Adam Smith Institute (2025) 28% of young people are actively planning to emigrate, 20% have seriously considered it.
It reflects a pervading sense of pessimism. According to Yougov A near record 70% disprove of the government compared to just 11% approval. When asked about the prospects for 2026, a paltry 9% said it would be fairly good or very good. There was a time when the UK punched above its weight, a source of innovation, prosperity and cultural strength, but now many think the country is broken, housing costs are through the roof, and less opportunities for young people. But is the pessimism overdone? and do other countries really provide a better standard of living?
For young people, especially, there is a real frustration with the housing market. Since 2007, wages have stagnated, but rent costs have risen faster than inflation. It means many feel cut off from a basic necessity of modern living – affordable housing. A broken social contract. In recent years, the graduate job market has slowed down with applications exceeding positions. The best places for jobs are exactly those with the highest living costs. London remains a mecca for the UK economy dominated by finance, but can end up with a rent-to-income ratio of 47%. If you want to afford somewhere affordable to live, going abroad to a warmer climate may be more appealing than moving to Hull or Doncaster.
The problem is that the ratio of house price to incomes has risen, making it very hard to buy without very high salary or help from parents. That leaves the rented sector, which increasingly takes bigger share of income. 65% believe it will become more difficult to find affordable housing in the next five year. And recent history suggests there is good reason to fear higher housing costs.
However, it is worth pointing out the UK is not alone in having expensive housing. It is a problem across the anglosphere. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US. All favourite places for expats, have a similar crisis of housing costs. Also the concerns over jobs for young people is not just a UK phenomena economic stagnation, the threat of AI is a global phenomena, with the US and European countries seeing a similar problem.
EU Nationals Emigration
Since the Brexit vote in 2016, EU nationals have gone from net immigration to net emigration. Poles, Romanians and Czechs are going back home.
Three years ago, I made a video about how the Polish economy was set to overtake the UK economy by 2035. So far this is bang on schedule. If anything, the UK economic performance since 2023 has been slightly worse than expected. I read a Daily Mail article about a Polish family returning home to Poland. They managed to talk about why Polish nationals were returning to Poland without mentioning the word Brexit. But, Brexit has been a factor in creating a rise in unease and a sense EU nationals are less welcome. But, one cautionary tale is that Brexit also means that even if people want to emigrate from the UK, it is much harder now. A British passport is less powerful than in the past. Free movement of labour works both ways and even young musicians wanting to work in the EU, it is now quite problematic.
Very Rich Leaving?
Another group keen to leave the UK are the very rich. Complaining about high taxes, VAT on school fees and abolition of non-dom perks, millionaires are attracted to destinations like Dubai, which presents a stark contrast to the UK. Whilst some individuals can end up with a marginal tax rate of 60%, Dubai offers no personal income tax, capital gains or inheritance tax. At the same time there is a world of luxury and warm weather. Henley & Partners estimated about 16,500 millionaires might leave the UK in 2025 However, although stories of millionaire exodus are well covered in the media. The fears over millionaire exodus are mostly exagerated. Even if 16,500 left, it is only around 0.6% of the UK’s millionaire population. Also, the UK is still attracting net migration of millionaires. For them the UK does have advantages, such as top tier education. stable legal system, relative political stability and still strong cultural and lifestyle appeal. London may be overcrowded and expensive. But, its traditions, history, theatres and museums offer a kind of lifestyle that cannot be matched by Dubai’s cosmetic gleaming skyscrapers. Not everyone is motivated by tax avoidance and luxury lifestyle.
Also, whilst emigration is rising, it is worth pointing out that this partly reflects very high levels of net migration in recent years. What is happening is that with the government cutting work and student visas, net migration is falling and some of recent arrivals are returning. For all the talk of doom and gloom about the UK, it does remain an attraction to many living abroad.
Also, on the metric of tax, the UK is not particularly high by international standards. It is certainly higher than the US, though in the US, there is cost of private health insurance. But, compared to other European countries, UK tax rates are not particularly high. However, you could argue there is a difference.
Since 2007, the UK tax burden has increased significantly, but at the same time, there has not been an improvement in public services. The UK can’t afford to pay for the growth in welfare and health care that it needs. It means services have been stretched, leading to backlogs in the criminal justice system, record NHS waiting lists and a whole raft of useful public services like libraries, community centres and sports fields cut to the bone. It is this kind of small scale cuts, plus decline in high streets and local communities, which have reduced the attractiveness of living in Britain.
Crime
A repeated concern, especially in the media is a sense of crime and lawlessness on the rise, especially low level crime, which the police don’t get involved in. Even something like phone snatching and bike theft may only receive a cursory investigation from the police. Ironically, some types of recorded crime have been in big decline since the mid 1990s, though crime surveys paint a different picture. Some media outlets like to portray British cities as dangerous and violent, but if we compare homicide rates, the UK is not an outlier. It is higher than Japan and Germany, but significantly less than the US.
If you asked people the good aspects of the UK, you might get answers like the NHS, education,the countryside and cultural institutions. But the NHS is under great strain because demand is rising faster than capacity. Waiting lists are high and service is patchy. Young people have seen a rise in sickness rates, with big increase in those receiving health-related benefits. And this reflects increased anxiety and depression rates. And data suggests that here the UK is performing worse than comparable countries.
Combined with cost-of-living pressures, and pessimism about the future, the UK is seeing a big drop in fertility rates – we have fewer births and will soon start to see a big rise in old age dependency. That means higher tax for young workers left. However, is the UK an outlier in this regard? Fertility rates are falling across the world. The smartphone generation of mental anxiety is a global problem. Move to another country and the same issue repeats.In fact it is other countries like Japan, Korea and Italy which are seeing more problematic declines in birth rates.
Britons are pretty pessimistic and given the state of the economy, housing and the cost of living it is understandable, but is there a danger of assuming the grass is always greener on the other side. In terms of living standards, the UK has slipped but is still middle-ranking. In measures of quality of life, Numbeo ranks the UK 22nd just behind Croatia. Interestinly I just spent two weeks in Croatia. It was very nice, though I felt no strong desire to move there permanently. Better climate perhaps, but with global warming the UK may become a nice refuge in summer from super-hot European cities. I think there are many good reasons still to live in the UK, and the problems the Uk faces are really there in most countries. But, you can’t ignore since the Second World War, economic prospects have seen a relative decline.
Related
Sources
- https://www.canopy.rent/rental-affordability-index/canopy-uk-rental-affordability-index-q3-2025
- https://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/rankings_by_country.jsp
- https://www.timeout.com/uk/news/the-uk-passport-has-fallen-to-its-lowest-ever-position-in-the-global-power-rankings-heres-why-its-so-weak-101625
- https://yougov.co.uk/
- https://www.adamsmith.org/polling/new-polling-shows-1-in-4-young-brits-could-leave
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