Why are young people leaving the UK - and are they ever coming back?
Keir Starmer, like many before him, has made reducing the number of people coming into this country a central mission of his government.
The prime minister has pledged repeatedly to bring down net migration, the difference between the number of people coming into the country and the number leaving.
In May, he announced a set of measures to drastically cut new arrivals, including higher salary thresholds for workers and shorter timeframes for international students to find work once they’ve completed their studies.
Recent data released by the ONS suggests that years of tightening restrictions on movement by successive governments may have started to bear fruit.
In the year ending June 2025, net migration fell to an estimated 204,000 – a 78% drop from its peak in 2023.
This may signal good news for a government concerned about the political ramifications of persistent high migration, but beneath the headline figure is another story which might, in the long-run, prove just as troubling.
The significant decline in the ONS numbers is understood to be driven by departures from the record number of people who came to the UK in the years following the pandemic, many of whose visas have now expired.
More than 250,000, however, were British citizens, two-thirds of whom were aged between 16 and 34.
This means that the level of emigration for British nationals is now at similar levels to that of non-EU nationals leaving the UK.
The departures have prompted concerns about an unprecedented UK ‘brain drain’, in which 90% of those leaving are of working age – at a time when ministers are desperate to boost faltering growth figures and fix long-standing concerns about productivity.
So, who are the young people driving this fresh-faced exodus, where are they fleeing to, and why?
Harriet in Australia. Credit: Harriet Edwards
Harriet in Australia. Credit: Harriet Edwards
Where are young Brits going?
Harriet Edwards, 24, has lived in Australia for three years.
Based in Melbourne, she works for a digital marketing agency, having lived in Sydney for two years after studying abroad there on an exchange programme while at Leeds University.
Harriet moved back to Australia once her degree was over to travel and work, saying she was drawn to the country’s work-life balance, as well as the weather.
In comparison to the UK, she said, there is not an expectation for junior staff to stay beyond working hours, while people enjoy more employment perks and tend to earn higher salaries.
Both her sister and others who returned home after living in Australia struggled to find jobs whose pay equalled what they were earning abroad, despite coming back with more experience.
Harriet said she only thought fleetingly about returning to the UK and did not give it any serious consideration: “Why would I get paid less, to pay more rent to – in my opinion – not have as good a lifestyle, when I could have all of those things in Australia?”
Harriet is one of tens of thousands of young people who’ve opted to relocate to Australia – which is now the top destination for British citizens living overseas.
Polling by the British Council found that the country tops the list (24%) of destinations young people in the UK are most drawn to.
According to the same report, nearly three-quarters (72%) of 18-30 year-olds have considered living and working in another country.
In 2024, almost 50,000 people relocated on an Australian ‘working holiday’ visa, which since July 2024 no longer includes a mandatory requirement to work on a farm in order to extend your stay.
Brits are the fastest-growing group to secure these visas – which last for three-years and which anyone up to 35 can apply for – with 80% more in 2025 than the previous year.
Growing numbers of resident doctors are choosing to practise abroad.
Departing Doctors
One group driving the large numbers emigrating is healthcare professionals who have made the decision to practise abroad.
Data from the British Medical Council suggests that thousands of doctors are currently thinking about leaving the UK, in addition to the 4000 who departed in 2024.
The same study said that a lack of opportunities for progression, as well as feeling undervalued and disillusion with UK healthcare systems, were the main reasons doctors wanted to leave.
Speaking from Melbourne, Harriet said: “There are so many nurses, doctors, dentists out here who are getting paid astronomically more money, as they should be, and are able to work in private healthcare.”
Uncertain futures
The British Council’s report also suggests the primacy of economic factors for those wanting to leave.
Almost two-thirds (63%) of young people said their standard of living was worse than their parents’ generation, while more than half (55%) cited low wages as a “major issue”.
Currently, almost a million young people in Britain are not in education, employment or training, while unemployment is up to a four-year high.
In December, one report from PwC found that the UK was falling behind comparable economies in its annual youth employment index, in part because of severe regional divides in youth joblessness.
Chiara in Spain. Credit: Chiara Gillham
Chiara in Spain. Credit: Chiara Gillham
But tumult in the UK jobs market does not automatically translate into better fortunes elsewhere.
Chiara Gillham, 23, has lived in A Coruña in north west Spain for a year and a half, where she is studying for a master’s degree.
She left the UK because she wanted to experience a different culture, as well as an opportunity to improve her Spanish.
Chiara said she has met great people in Spain and that it would be a shame to leave her life there, but added that living abroad can be lonely and that the job market is challenging – often involving a year of unpaid work before receiving a full-time salary.
Returning to the UK is something that had been on her mind, she said, in part due to the higher wages on offer:
“There are lots of opportunities in the UK and maybe I didn’t appreciate that when I was there and now that I’m here, I can see that we do actually have it quite good.”
Brexit: a 'turning point'?
Changes in the UK political climate may also be a factor in why people like Chiara, whose mother is French and who grew up in a bilingual household in a small town in Hertfordshire, are deciding to leave.
She said that Brexit was a “big blow” and the first moment she realised that people around her might hold different opinions to her about Europe, the world, and immigration.
Sylvia Oudmaijer, 25, grew up in Leeds but now lives in Utrecht in the Netherlands, where she works in PR and marketing.
Like Chiara, she grew up with a French-speaking mother, while her father is from the Netherlands.
Despite being born and growing up in the UK, Sylvia said, she never "necessarily felt fully British” and moving abroad was always something she wanted to explore.
The Brexit vote was also a major turning point for her family and an important factor in why they are planning to leave the UK.
Hana and her partner. Credit: Hana Leakey
Hana and her partner. Credit: Hana Leakey
Difficulties returning
Tightening visa restrictions, intended to reduce immigration, also present a significant obstacle for those who may want to return, but have met partners during their time away.
Hana Leakey, 30, grew up in north-east England but has lived in Brno, in the Czech Republic, since 2019.
She says that she does think about coming back to the UK, but worries this would mean long periods of separation from her fiance, who is Czech.
Hana said: “You have to prove they have a job lined up or that you can provide for them, if and when they come to Britain, and they have to be able to provide proof of accommodation before they even get there.”
Visa applications are lengthy and expensive, with strict requirements and planned rises in the income threshold for workers wanting to move to the UK.
This could make it difficult for her partner to come with her, if Hana decided to return to the UK.
“I’ve heard about the job market in Britain”, she said, “and you’re going to be absolutely powerless trying to apply for anything as a foreigner who’s never lived in Britain, unless you’re some super swish AI data scientist or something else, but no – she’s a writer!”
Though there’s nothing new about young people deciding to live and study abroad, the sense of diminishing prospects back home and an increasingly hostile political environment may encourage more people, like Sylvia, to think twice about returning.
She said that where she lives now “feels very functional” and people seem happy but, when she goes back to England, things feel different.
“The longer you’re away from the country you grew up in, the more you’re in this completely different context and the weirder it feels to back home – or what you feel like was home.
“I feel more far away every time I go back to Leeds. I feel further and further away from Britain. The longer I’m away the less I think I’ll come back. I’m trying to build roots here now.”
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