Team Teleport is all for less borders and more free movement of people, which means that Brexit made us sad as a step towards more isolation in Europe. But what do knowledge workers in the UK think? We conducted a survey to find out.



There is a lot of speculation around Brexit. Are people going to leave? How big of a problem will the access to EU markets be to startups? In the light of all the uncertainty, and as Teleport was invited to speak at Yborder’s event on the future of UK tech after the brexit, we put together a short survey to see what knowledge workers think about Brexit.

The survey was sent to Teleport users who have marked the UK as their current location – nearly 6000 users in total, out of whom 278 replied. Some of them UK citizens (51%), some citizens of other countries who reside in the UK (49%). 11% of them startup founders, 23% startup employees, and the rest being different types of knowledge workers – designers, architects, researchers etc.

To start off, we asked “Are you planning to the leave the UK as a result of Brexit?”. 32% of the users answered “Yes”, 24,4% said “No” and 43,6% are still unsure. So, only 24% of knowledge workers are surely staying, and 76% of them are considering leaving. Although there is still a long list of unclear issues related to Brexit, these results already show that the free movement of talent could be a big risk for UK in the next few years.

Secondly, we asked “How did you vote in the EU referendum?” (we only counted UK citizens here, because non-citizens could not vote). A staggering 91% of respondents voted “remain”. Yes, we know that 60% of people in London voted “remain” – including younger and more educated people in the UK. But this is not 60% or 70%, it’s 91%!

Only 4,1% of users said they did not vote at all – whereas statistics show that on average, 28% of UK voters did not vote in the EU referendum.

Lastly, we checked the data about different user groups – UK citizens vs non-UK citizens, London residents vs people outside of London and startup people vs other knowledge workers. The results are surprisingly similar across the different groups – all the answers for leaving the UK after Brexit are in the 30,8%-34,5% range for all the groups. That shows us that knowledge workers have quite similar views on Brexit, no matter what their background is.

To sum it up, here are some comments from the users based on the last question:

I was already planning to leave and am now very happy it was the right decision. – UX designer, UK citizen

I am leaving, but that was happening regardless. – startup employee, UK citizen

Actually, I might consider going back. – designer, developer, writer, company director, who voted “leave”

Would like to, not sure how likely I could though. – full time in-house web developer, UK citizen

No, unless my right to reside as an EU citizen is revoked, even when I live here for more than 5 years. – academic researcher & teacher, not a UK citizen

If Scotland becomes independent as a result, I shall move. – a UK citizen

For further reading, check out our pragmatic guide to Brexit, including the best options in Europe for startup founders and a zoom in on Berlin as a booming startup city.

Are you thinking about leaving the UK and wondering what your next best options are in Europe? Discover and compare income, living costs and quality of life data on 170+ locations around the world with Teleport Cities.