PRICED OUT: Record number of Brits are leaving our country due to cost-of-living crisis
252,000 Brits left the UK last year. Not because they wanted to. Because they had to. While the elites counted their profits, ordinary people counted the cost and decided enough was enough.
Britain is bleeding people. Not the super-rich packing up for Monaco, but ordinary working families, graduates and pensioners who have simply had enough. They are looking at the bills, looking at their wages, and heading for the door.
New figures make for grim reading. Emigration jumped by over 6% in 2025. Last year, 252,000 Brits left the UK while only 143,000, returned. We are losing more than we are gaining. And the reasons are not complicated.
Priced out
61% of Brits planning to move overseas blame Britain’s cost-of-living crisis, while a full half point to the economy. These are not people chasing adventure. They are people chasing a decent life. The kind of life that used to be possible here.
So where are they going? Amsterdam is leading the charge, pulling in an average of 9,000 annual “move to” searches. Singapore, New York, Sydney, Paris and Berlin all feature heavily too. The pattern is clear. Brits are scanning the globe for somewhere that actually works for ordinary people.
Asad Mirza, Logistics Specialist at Cargo Force, puts it plainly: “What we’re seeing is a mix of lifestyle-led and opportunity-led destinations, with cities like Amsterdam and Singapore offering a balance of career prospects, quality of life, and international connectivity”.
Gen Z exodus
But perhaps the most troubling part of this story is who is leaving. It is not just the over-50s dreaming of sunshine. It is young people. It is the next generation. And they are going earlier than ever before.
A new report from The TEFL Academy, dubbed The Great Gen Z Exodus, reveals a major shift in life planning, with people in their 20s increasingly choosing to build careers abroad rather than waiting until their 30s.
The numbers are stark. In June 2025, departures among those aged 20 to 29 reached 130,000 to 140,000, significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels of around 92,000 to 95,000 in 2018. Around 195,000 Brits under 35 emigrated in the past year, meaning younger adults now account for the vast majority of those leaving the country.
Why? Ask them and they will tell you straight. Among respondents aged 18 to 34, more than 86% agreed that UK wages do not reflect the cost of living, while around 79% said they feel constant financial pressure living in the UK. Confidence in long-term UK prospects averages just 2.44 out of 5.
According to the British Council, 72% of UK adults aged 18 to 30 say they would consider living and working abroad, while 63% believe their standard of living is worse than that of their parents’ generation.
Running toward opportunity
Read that again. Nearly two-thirds of young Brits think they are worse off than their parents. That is not a blip. That is a failure. A failure of those in power to protect the people they are supposed to serve.
Rhyan O’Sullivan, Managing Director at The TEFL Academy, says: “Young Britons aren’t running away from the UK, they’re running toward opportunity”. He is right. But we should be angry that opportunity is something they have to run toward rather than find at home.
This is what happens when the polluters and extractors and their cronies in government put profit before people. Ordinary Brits, young and old, are left to pick up the bill while those at the top pocket the rewards. Enough is enough: no one should have to leave the country they love just to live a decent life.