Almost 88,000 British expats left Spain last year, according to figures released by Spain’s national statistics institute.
Town halls in Spain maintain registers of residents and these showed a drop of 23% during the course of 2013. At the beginning of January 385,179 were registered but that fell to 297,229 by the close of the year.
The British embassy in Madrid, however, estimates that there are some 800,000 British who live in Spain at least for part of the year.
This is the second year when a significant reduction in British expat numbers has been recorded. Nor are they alone – registered German expat numbers also declined by 23% to 138,917 and registered residents from France fell by 13% to a little more than 100,000.
According to official statistics Britons remain the second largest EU expatriate community in Spain after Romanians.
But it was only the Chinese whose numbers in Spain increased last year.
The drop in expat numbers is believed to be due to a number of factors. With people strapped for cash during country’s long recession, many businesses faltered. People were also concerned about new legislation which obliges residents to declare all their global assets.
Maura Hillen, the chairman of AUAN, a pressure group campaigning for British home owners hit by property scandals, said: "Many people no longer wish to stay in Spain because of the never-ending fight to legalise their properties.
"There is a wider trend of Britons leaving. People who retired out here in their 50s and 60s have seen their circumstances change. Advancing age, losing a partner, and the rise in the cost of living make life here less attractive."
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The Gibraltar effect ? Spain's Pink Map equivalent ???