More than 11% of South Africans with higher education considering emigration – study

South Africa is at risk of losing its working-age population, with at least 10% of educated and high-income earners considering emigration, a study by Inclusive Society has revealed.

The study revealed that 11.13% of South Africans with higher education indicated that they were considering emigrating to another country in the next year or two, with 10.35% of the top earners indicating that they were seriously considering emigrating in the next year or two.

Race is not the driving force behind the motivation to emigrate, revealed the study, with 11.72% of the white participants wanting to emigrate, followed by 9.73% of the black participants.

The three top reasons for emigration were better job opportunities, overall better opportunity and a better life/standard of living.

Corruption also made it onto the list of reasons, while others indicated their desire to experience different societies, cultures, and lifestyles.

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In terms of age, the aspiration to emigrate reduces the older people become, revealed the study.

“South Africans in the 18–24-year-old category considered emigrating more than three times that considered by those over the age of 50.

“The results of the survey show that as people get older, their intention to emigrate declines. In the category 18-24 years, 15.91 percent were considering emigration. In the category 25-34 years, it reduced to 11.25 percent. In the category 35-49 years this went down to 8.06 percent. And in the category 50 years and older it was 4.76 percent.”

The top five emigration destinations are the US, UK, Germany, Canada and Australia.

“The inherent danger that emigration holds for the current stagnant and job-losing South African economy, is that it is also driving the qualified abroad, which in turn, because of the skills deficit in the economy, further reduces its ability to perform optimally. And optimal performance is needed to expand GDP and employment growth,” concludes the study.