More than half of the 1,000 Brits questioned said they had considered emigrating at some point in their life. But 13 per cent said they were hoping to do so in the near future – almost double the percentage when the questioned was last asked in 2003. Some 37 per cent said their main motivation would be to achieve a better quality of life. A quarter though the UK was just too expensive to live in.

Just under one in 10 said they already had family or friends living overseas.

Young people were the most likely to want to leave, with a quarter saying they were hoping to live abroad. More than one in 10 said they did not like what the UK had become.

Of reasons given for not emigrating, language difficulties were mentioned by only 6 per cent of respondents. Some 4 per cent worried about their eligibility to work overseas The cost of moving was cited by another 6 per cent. But 43 per cent said they would not like to leave their family and friends.

The most popular destinations were Australia, Spain, Canada, New Zealand and the US. Australia was named by 40 per cent of respondents, Spain by 31 per cent, Canada by 24 per cent, New Zealand by 22 per cent, and the USA by 21 per cent. Portugal and Cyprus were each preferred by 4 per cent of those surveyed, just 1 per cent less that Greece, while South Africa was nominated by 3 per cent.

This tallies with a count of British passport holders provided recently by the Foreign Office in reply to a Commons question.