There have also been growing numbers of Britons living in the former Eastern Bloc since the final days of the communist era in 1990: up from 98 to 4,276 in Slovakia, from 2,725 to 37,000 in Poland, and from 440 to 3,846 in Romania. The UN research showed that worldwide the advent of cheap flights and the need to find work has seen more people than ever living outside the country where they were born — 232 million, or three per cent of the global population.