§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what he estimates to be the numbers involved in the brain drain from Great Britain each year since 1960.
§ Mrs. CurrieOur understanding of the term "brain drain" is the numbers of people in management and professional groups who have emigrated.
Information on the brain drain is not directly available from the statistics compiled by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. However, the movement of persons in the professional and managerial occupational category are shown in the table. It should be noted that some emigrants will have previously entered the United Kingdom from abroad and some will eventually return to the United Kingdom; and conversely for immigrants.
Professional and managerial emigrants and immigrants, United Kingdom Year Inflow Thousands Outflow Thousands 1964 36.8 44.0 1965 40.0 45.8 1966 41.8 48.4 1967 38.5 55.5 1968 40.7 55.5 1969 46.1 54.8 1970 46.3 56.4 1971 43.4 51.0 1972 50.0 49.1 1973 47.1 51.1 1974 48.0 62.1 1975 48.7 60.4 1976 52.2 70.3 1977 43.2 65.8 1978 45.6 55.5 1979 52.8 57.9 1980 44.5 64.8 1981 45.2 67.5 1982 43.7 66.7 1983 55.3 50.6 1984 58.8 50.8