UK expats happy living overseas
by Harleen Kaur - September 14, 2010
United Kingdom, 14th September: Almost 71 percent o f retired British expats are happy with their retirement abroad and don’t intend to return back to their native nations, the findings of the recent survey reveal.
The Quality of Life Report by NatWest IPB (NatWest International Personal Banking) states that the retired expats do not regret their decision to stay back abroad.
The number of expats who had moved to Spain, France or Portugal to live there and plan coming back to their homes is just around 20 percent.
The survey conducted on behalf of NatWest Bank by Center for Future Studies is based on 1,300 retirees.
The findings suggest that nearly nine out of ten retired expats were found to be living among population of their adopted nations and not among fellow British people in established communities of expats.
Nearly 58 percent of expats said they had better than expected experiences living abroad while 67 percent agreed that they felt happier overseas than they might have been in Britain.
The survey highlights two categories of UK expats, namely, ‘lifer expats’ and ‘silver expats’.
‘Lifer expats’ are those who moved out of the UK to work overseas and later on, retired in the nation they were working. ‘Silver expats’, on the other hand, are those who have been living and working in the UK for a major part of their lives but have chosen to retire overseas. Such expats are referred to as silver expats.
‘Lifer expats’ were likely to move to nations like Canada, New Zealand and the US while ‘silver expats’ were likely to retire and stay in Europe.
Around 16 percent of ‘silver expats’ expressed their intentions of moving back to the UK while the percentage of ‘lifer expats’ intending to relocate to the UK was just nine percent.
Nearly 91 percent of retired expats who move to Australia, the US, New Zealand or Canada and have worked overseas before retirement accepted that moving back to Britain was totally out of their minds.
As per head of NatWest International Personal Banking, Dave Isley, the latest British expat study reiterates that retiring overseas is a preferred choice for many UK expats and they feel happy with their decision to live abroad.
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