Majority of Brits would leave UK if money no object, study finds

Spain once again proves its appeal to sun-starved Brits

A revealing poll by YouGov has discovered that more than half of Brits would happily move to another country in the EU if they could be sure that their standard of living would not fall.

With money worries, career prospects and housing concerns stripped away, the majority of Brits polled for YouGov’s Prospect magazine confirmed that they would up sticks to another European country – with Spain far and away the top choice…

The youngest age group polled, 18- to 24-year-olds, was most willing to move overseas, with less than one-third saying that they would remain in the UK in response to the question: “Which European Union country would you choose to live in, assuming you could maintain your standard of living?”

For the over-60s, that figure was 39%, yet more than half of this age group said that they would prefer to move elsewhere in the EU, with Spain the preferred choice for 13%, which is more than any other country.

“One reason for these results is that most of us have doubts about our own country,” said YouGov chief Peter Kellner. “Few of us think we can claim the best public services, friendliest people or – and for many, this is the clincher – the best weather.

“These things matter more to us than the things we reckon we do better than other EU countries: our democracy and the standard of our policing.”

After Spain, France, Italy, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands were popular destinations, with Ireland winning the accolade for the country with the friendliest people in Europe – a category that many Brits feel is very important to their life satisfaction. Public services, of which the Brits are proud of what the UK has achieved, were rated as on par with Germany.

A quarter of those polled believed that Germany also has the highest standard of living in the EU, closely followed by Sweden, with a mere nine per cent of the opinion that the UK offers the highest standard of living in the EU. Brits do believe, however, that they are home to the friendliest people (after Ireland), with Sweden, Greece and Spain also performing well on this metric. For once, Germany was nowhere near the top 5 on this particular issue.

The poll also asked British citizens for their views on EU membership for the UK, with 42% stating that they would vote to remain in the EU should the matter ever be put up for a referendum vote. In contrast, 37% said they would vote to leave the EU.