What expats miss the most

Fish and Chips

A new survey has investigated the motivations of British expats leaving the UK , and also what they end up missing the most.

The main motivations for people to leave the United Kingdom were found to be a better retirement and general quality of life.

The survey, dubbed the Happiness Index, was conducted by Post Office International Payments.

Overall the results were highly positive for people who had chosen to become expatriates. Seventy percent of the interviewed expats described themselves as completely happy with their new lives, 60 percent claimed they were living in areas that had a better sense of community than the UK.

When quizzed about what they missed from the UK, family and friends are unsurprisingly the most missed, with 57 percent and 43 percent of the votes respectively. A further 25 percent said they missed UK functions and events, and 20 percent said they missed the UK countryside.

On the subject of UK foods, fish and chips are missed by 23 percent, the same as a proper pint of lager. A pub lunch is missed by 21 percent, English tea is missed by 13 percent and 6 percent miss the taste of Marmite.

London and the South East was the part of England where people were most likely to move from.

A spokesman from Post Office International Payments said: “‘Our research has shown that two thirds of expats are feeling a pressure on their personal finances; with the global recession impacting interest rates and the performance of the pound on the currency market, relocation doesn’t always mean immunity to ongoing financial strain. Although we’ve seen that the vast majority of people who relocated abroad are much happier in their adoptive countries, even just moving across the channel can feel like worlds apart from your old life in the UK. And it takes a lot of organising.”