Growth in EU Citizens Moving to UK Plummets in 2 Years post-Brexit Referendum
With just six months until the UK leaves the European Union, new research from leading flatshare site SpareRoom reveals growth in the number of EU citizens looking to move to the UK has plummeted.
In the 10 months before the referendum vote, traffic to SpareRoom.co.uk from EU countries grew by 14.7%. In the two years following the vote, growth slowed to 4.3% (2016-17) and fell further to 1.3% (2017-18). Immediately post-Brexit vote, growth from non-EU countries dropped from 28.7% to 15.9% but recovered to 19.9% (2017 – 2018).
The only EU nation showing growth, outstripping the rest of the world (ROW) was Croatia.
Chart – EU overall growth vs ROW
|
Growth 2015 – 2016 (%) |
Growth 2016 – 2017 (%) |
Growth 2017 – 2018 (%) |
|
| EU |
14.7 |
4.3 |
1.3 |
| ROW |
28.7 |
15.9 |
19.9 |
Chart – Three year growth from EU nations
| Country | Growth 2015 – 2016 (%) | Growth 2016 – 2017 (%) | Growth 2017 – 2018 (%) |
| Italy |
15.1 |
4.0 |
8.8 |
| France |
11.6 |
4.8 |
-0.5 |
| Spain |
15.9 |
4.2 |
1.4 |
| Germany |
4.4 |
7.2 |
-5.3 |
| Ireland |
7.2 |
14.2 |
-10.8 |
| Poland |
26.4 |
-5.4 |
17.7 |
| Greece |
46.2 |
17.5 |
1.2 |
| Netherlands |
9.1 |
-1.8 |
-1.5 |
| Romania |
33.8 |
-2.8 |
1.3 |
| Portugal |
14.7 |
1.1 |
1.3 |
| Sweden |
2.6 |
4.4 |
-2.4 |
| Bulgaria |
32.6 |
6.9 |
9.4 |
| Belgium |
7.7 |
-4.7 |
6.0 |
| Hungary |
20.5 |
-3.2 |
-3.1 |
| Lithuania |
22.1 |
16.1 |
6.0 |
| Czechia |
17.4 |
-2.2 |
1.8 |
| Denmark |
10.6 |
2.5 |
-10.1 |
| Austria |
10.6 |
7.1 |
-3.7 |
| Cyprus |
23.9 |
7.2 |
2.0 |
| Finland |
24.4 |
-1.4 |
-9.4 |
| Slovakia |
14.5 |
-8.0 |
1.1 |
| Croatia |
40.5 |
17.8 |
23.3 |
| Latvia |
12.4 |
2.5 |
6.8 |
| Malta |
22.9 |
-2.1 |
-2.1 |
| Slovenia |
-12.3 |
9.9 |
-0.4 |
| Estonia |
1.1 |
-2.7 |
2.3 |
| Luxembourg |
17.0 |
8.1 |
-0.8 |
| EU |
14.7 |
4.3 |
1.3 |
The nation with the biggest growth in people looking to move to the UK was Ukraine, with traffic growth rising from 60% (2015-16) to a staggering 266% (2017-18)
