§ Mr. David MarshallTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the number of UK citizens who have emigrated from the UK in each of the last five years, broken down by destination country. [134727]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. David Marshall, dated 27 October 2003:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your question on the number of UK citizens who have emigrated from the UK in each of the last five years, broken down by destination country. (134727)The most recent edition of the annual reference volume for international migration can be found by following the link to the National Statistics website at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/ downloads/theme_population/MN28.pdf.This was published in September and includes data for the years 1992 to 2001. Data regarding country of next residence for 2002 will become available with the publication of the next edition of this volume in Spring 2004.Table 2.2 of the volume shows estimates for country of next residence grouped as follows: European Union; Old Commonwealth (which includes Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa); New Commonwealth (which includes all other Commonwealth countries); and Other foreign countries. Tables 2.3 and 2.4 show more detailed breakdowns of the data for the Old and New Commonwealth and the European Union and other foreign countries respectively.At present, we are unable to break the data down to individual country beyond those countries included in these tables. The estimates are predominantly based on responses to the International Passenger Survey which samples 0.2% of international travellers using the principal routes to and from the UK. This sample size does not support the production of estimates for country of next residence to a greater level of detail than is currently shown.