07. Mar 2024
One in five in each generation lives abroad

Statistics Faroe Islands introduces the concept of ‘resident retention rate’. This metric tracks the proportion of individuals from each generation who remain in the Faroe Islands over time. It does this by following individuals within a specific generation, starting from a particular age and monitoring their residence status over time.

Individuals within a generation are tracked from a selected starting age, e.g. 0 or 18. As a result, the resident retention rate for any generation will always be 100% at the chosen starting age and cannot surpass 100% in subsequent years.

This article uses 18 as the starting age to track the proportion of young adults remaining in the Faroes later in life. This is because many individuals, especially those up to school age, are added to a generation in the early years, potentially skewing the data.

You can see the proportion of your generation still living in the Faroes here.

40% move abroad

Resident retention rates of younger and older generations are compared to analyse generational changes.

In the graphs below, the generations 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995 and 2000 are followed from age 18. This means that individuals from, for example, the 1980 birth cohort who lived in the Faroes in 1998 are tracked from 1998 onwards. The oldest generation is tracked up to the age of 50. Since relatively few people die at a young age, changes in the resident retention rate are primarily caused by emigration.

Across all generations, the figures reveal a sharp decline in the resident retention rate around age 20, often dropping as low as 60%. This coincides with the common age for pursuing higher education abroad. 

The rate then begins to rise again as these generations approach age 30. In the younger generations (born 1980-2000) the rate rises towards 80% around age 30, where it stabilises. This translates to one in five in each younger generation remaining abroad. The 1970 birth cohort, however, had a slightly lower rate (between 70% and 80%) later in life. It is worth noting that this generation faced a major financial crisis during their 20s, which might have influenced their emigration patterns.

More women than men emigrate

Across all generations, a higher proportion of women emigrate around age 20 compared to men. At the lowest point of the resident retention rate, around 40-50% of women reside abroad, compared to 30-40% of men.

Interestingly, the rates for women and men often converge over time in many generations. Although more women emigrate, many of them return after spending time abroad.