Description:

According to a recent study by the French statistics body INSEE, Charente is the fourth most popular destination for British expats, welcoming 5,000 of the 13,000 British people resident in Poitou Charentes.

With just 41,300 foreign residents, Poitou Charentes has a smaller percentage of its population counted as foreigners than the national average (2.4% compared to 5.8%), and the British are by far the most represented of the group (13,000), followed by the Portuguese (6,600), Moroccans (2,900) and Algerians (2,200).  Other major contributors to the population are Belgians, Guineans and Spaniards, who all count more than 1,000 people in the region.

Of the 165,000 people who have come to live in Poitou Charentes in the last five years, foreigners represent almost one in ten.

Whilst Poitou Charentes is popular with us Brits, it is not as popular as Ile de France, Midi-Pyrenees or Aquitaine.  By department, Paris is the most popular followed by Dordogne, Alpes-Maritimes and then Charente.  Charente-Maritime is twelfth, Deux Sevres sixteenth and Vienne twenty-first.

Around 85% of the British expat population in Poitou Charentes live in rural areas, with Montmorillon (1693) and Confolens (2,732) the most popular.

To read the full report, which has useful reference tables showing population by departments and key places, check out this link to INSEE.

Daily newspaper Sud-Ouest ran an article on this subject which you can read by clicking here.  Well done to Angouleme resident Steve Carney for getting a mention (and a photo) included!

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