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Over 900,000 Brits live long term in mainland Europe

Xinhua, January 27, 2017 Adjust font size:

More than 900,000 British people live long term in mainland Europe, with over a third setting up home in Spain, official data revealed on Friday.

Statisticians at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have carried out a detailed analysis of the number of British people who are long-term residents of European Union countries.

France, Ireland and Germany also have high numbers of British people living within their boundaries.

The ONS looked at the numbers living more long term outside of Britain, residing for at least a year in other countries.

Of the 308,805 British people living in Spain, a third are aged over 65, confirming the sun-soaked Spanish resorts as favorite retirement spots for older people.

Jay Lindop, deputy director for population at ONS, said ONS has produced this analysis to give a clearer picture of British citizens living in the EU and European economic area.

"These data are from censuses held in 2011, the most recently available source of comparable data for all countries. Our research suggests that there has not been a great deal of change in the numbers between 2011 and 2016," Lindop said.

ONS says the total number of people born in Britain, but registered as living in EU countries, is almost 1,140,000.

Statistic experts at ONS explain the higher figure includes foreign nationals born in Britain or British nationals born abroad.

"It gives a less precise estimate of how many British citizens might be affected when the UK exits the EU because they do not have citizenship of another EU state to use," said ONS.

Across EU countries, over 280,000 people aged 30 to 49 form the biggest group of British residents. Lithuania is the least popular, accounting for just 231 British residents.

While many Polish people head to the shores of Britain in search of work, just over 2,000 British people were registered as residing in Poland.

One of Europe's smallest countries, Switzerland, which falls within the European Free Trade area, is home to almost 34,000 British people. Endit