Ever wondered which countries people are choosing to move to? Want to know the countries people are leaving to move abroad?

MoveHub analysed over 180,000 of our customers’ moves to find out which countries are attracting the most people from overseas, and which countries are seeing an increase in leavers. Surprisingly, several countries like the UK, USA, and Australia made both lists.

Reasons people are moving abroad

Why do people move abroad in the first place? Unsurprisingly there is no one right answer for the entire population, only a selection of factors that make people want to uproot their lives and move overseas:

  • Better quality of life
  • Career progression
  • Economic pressure
  • Family ties
  • Lifestyle change
  • Politics
  • Wanderlust

Any combination of these seven factors can be the driving force behind someone’s desire to move abroad.

Professional migrants

There is one particular group that stands out in our research, a group we have dubbed ‘professional migrants’ based on their reasons for moving overseas. Professional migrants are people who generally move abroad for job opportunities, a new experience, and financial independence.

They are typically between the ages of 25 and 44, and make up a third of the total MoveHub enquiries. However anyone from university age to retirement age can be a professional migrant, as long as they are career focused and global nomads at heart. Even you could be a professional migrant.

Global trends

Our researchers reviewed the total number of moving enquiries from the last UK financial year (1 April 2015 – 31 March 2016) to find out which countries are top destinations for professional migrants, and which countries are less attractive to this group.

Top five countries people are moving to

1st, France

2nd, United Kingdom

3rd, USA

4th, Australia

5th, Spain

Top five countries people are leaving

1st, United Kingdom

2nd, France

3rd, Australia

4th, USA

5th, Ireland

To view the full list of popular origin and destination countries from the last financial year, download the Global Moving Trends Report.

Our data also shows the top 20 countries people from the UK move to (hint: Australia is on that list) and why people are still moving to the United Kingdom.