South Africa is reportedly experiencing a sharp rise in people emigrating – with data from some of the most popular receiver countries showing the scale.

This is also backed up with data from emigration assistance groups – which report a 22% rise in interest among South Africans looking to emigrate – as well as property data.

According to November 2018 data provided by FNB, the trend towards selling to emigrate has increased over the last quarter, with the bank finding that that approximately 8% of total sellers in Gauteng say they were selling to emigrate, just behind 9.57% in Cape Town and 10.64% in Ethekwini.

American think tank, Pew Research, estimates that at least 900,000 people born in South Africa were currently living in other countries in 2017. Alarmingly, many of these people are skilled and educated, resulting in a major brain drain.

The Department of Home Affairs does not keep record of South Africans who emigrate permanently; however, receiver countries do keep track of immigrants, which gives an indication of how many people are actually leaving.

Countries like the UK, New Zealand and Australia are popular destinations for skilled South Africans looking for an opportunity to further their careers, or create new beginnings for their family – particularly as many feel that South Africa’s economy shows no sign of improving in the near term.

UK

Of the 900,000 South Africans living abroad, Pew Research found that the United Kingdom was the destination of choice, with 210,000 migrants as of 2017.

At the beginning of January, statistics provided to City Press by UK’s Office for National Statistics showed that approximately 7,300 people emigrated from South Africa to the UK in 2017.

Australia

Data provided to BusinessTech in July 2018 shows that Australia remains a popular choice for emigrating South Africans.

The data focused on the ‘permanent additions’ to Australia’s resident population in the 2016-2017 financial year.

This includes the number of people who have obtained a permanent visa onshore, the number of settler arrivals during a given time period, and the number of people who have been granted a permanent protection visa onshore.

Combined this added to a total of 5,397 South Africans over this time period.

New Zealand

Statistics provided to BusinessTech at the end of 2018 found that New Zealand is becoming an increasingly popular destination for emigrating South Africans.

South Africans choose to move to New Zealand for numerous reasons, most notably because its safe, is child-friendly, and for job opportunities.

Historically these South Africans have entered the country on residence and work visas, however, the data shows that there has also been an increase in student visa-arrivals in recent years.

Notably, the data shows a sharp rise of accepted applicants in 2017 and 2018, with more than 5,534 South Africans moving to the country by November 2018 alone.

The below shows the permanent and long-term arrivals by South Africans and visa type:

Year Residence visa Student visa Visitor visa Work visa Other Total 2004 469 162 325 428 0 1 384 2005 409 180 407 505 6 1 507 2006 724 187 351 456 0 1 718 2007 660 344 368 675 4 2 051 2008 704 544 541 1 141 3 2 933 2009 752 429 279 691 12 2 163 2010 628 145 133 276 4 1 186 2011 611 145 135 310 1 1 202 2012 494 175 149 339 1 1 158 2013 391 163 165 412 9 1 140 2014 531 264 201 591 2 1 589 2015 493 352 278 856 3 1 982 2016 576 842 514 1 864 3 3 799 2017 659 1 225 679 2 565 5 5 133 2018 444 1 413 714 2 953 10 5 534

Read: The ANC just gave South African investors a big wake-up call