In 2013 there were around 1.19 million foreign expatriates in the UK as opposed to around 1.16 million UK expatriates in other countries.
Defining expatriates as individuals who establish their residence in the territory of another country for at least 12 months and a maximum of five years, financial market consultants Finaccord, calculated significant variations between these 'exported' and 'imported' expatriates.
58.3% of UK expatriates residing abroad are classified as individual workers, 23.5% as retired expatriates, 4.6% as students and 4.0% as corporate transferees with the balance of other expatriates defined as non-employed spouses and children.
In contrast, foreign expatriates living in the UK break down between individual workers at 46.4%, students at 38.4%, corporate transferees at 5.1%, retired expatriates at 3.1% and others (defined as before) at 7.1%.
"Global mobility has increased significantly over the past decade and expatriates constitute a large and diverse market", said Tobias Schneider, a consultant at Finaccord.
"With regards to the UK, our research establishes a number of facts, some of which often risk getting lost amid politically-motivated debate about immigration.
"These include: that the UK is probably the most open country in the world in terms of flows both in and out; that the UK is the largest 'exporter' of expatriates in the EU and one of the largest in the world; and that other major western European countries - France, Germany, Italy and Spain - all 'import' a lot more expatriates than they 'export'."
"By 2017, Finaccord forecasts that foreign expatriates living in the UK will have reached around 1.3 million while UK expatriates abroad will number approximately 1.21 million, meaning that the net difference will have widened to almost 90,000", concluded Schneider.
"Nevertheless, much of the growth in expatriates resident in the UK will be due to overseas students."
