A record number of people left the UK to live abroad last year, the government said yesterday.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said long-term emigration from the country hit 385,000 in the 12 months to July 2006.

However, even more people - 574,000 - moved to the UK to stay, helping to boost the overall population by 0.6%.

Migrants into the UK, meanwhile, are helping to boost the birth rate. One in four babies born in the UK now have a foreign mother or father, the ONS said.

ONS data for the year to July 2006 showed the proportion of babies born to a foreign-born parent has risen to 25% compared with 20% in 2001. Scotland last year, as previously reported, had more births than deaths as its population dashed pessimistic forecasts to rise again.

The government, however, was yesterday under pressure to find new ways of calculating long-term migration as doubts were cast on just how robust its statistics are.

Official emigration was at its highest since current counting methods were introduced in 1991, in a clear signal that more and more Britons are prepared to try life abroad, some for ever and others for just a few years.

Figures for both inbound and outbound migration included large numbers of UK-born citizens.

Sunshine, cheap housing and jetset lifestyles have been luring an increasing number of Scots in recent years. Last week Australia, one of the most popular destinations for emigrants over the year, renewed its efforts to cherrypick the best workers from the English-speaking world.

Migration patterns, however, have changed dramatically from the days when families waved off their sons and daughters on ships to the dominions, some never expecting to see them again. Many people now move away for just a few years - and the range of nations they go to is bigger than ever before.

Cheap flights to Europe, and lower property prices, have lured many to the continent, including eastern Europe. Eastern Europe, too, is helping to more than replace those leaving the UK, although here the figures are in dispute.

The ONS yesterday said 74,000 people from the A8 group of eastern and central European countries - Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Slovenia - had come to live in Britain in 2005-06.

That, however, is a far lower figure than the number registered to work by the Home Office in separate statistics. Officially the ONS said 16,000 people from the A8 countries left the UK for good in the 12 months.

Westminster Council in London yesterday said the ONS should get emergency cash to improve data on population levels.

Like Glasgow, the authority believes its population was underestimated in the 2001 census and believes true migration figures are not being taken into account.

Westminster deputy leader Colin Barrow has written to Treasury Minister Angela Eagle to ask for immediate help to sort out the "statistical mess".

This follows the arrival of eastern Europeans who joined the European Union in two waves in 2004 and at the start of this year.

"We are increasingly worried about the current accuracy and mismanagement of the official population figures," the letter said.

The ONS has recently shed some 700 jobs and moved to Wales, reportedly resulting in problems keeping workers.

The call echoes concerns in Scotland that the official populations of bigger local authorities areas may be wrong and that migration figures may not be accurate.

Case study
Alisdair Stanton, a Glasgow University philosophy graduate, is among the wave of Britons who have made new homes for themselves abroad.

Originally from Dunbar, the 22-year-old is swapping Scotland for Shaanxi as he leaves for China to begin work as an English teacher at a university in Xian, the capital of the Shaanxi Province, in central China. "I'm fascinated by Chinese culture," he said.

The number of Britons living in China has risen to 36,000 in recent years, and Mr Stanton will be tapping into a growing need for English.

Having previously worked in South Korea, Mr Stanton contacted universities and colleges based in Xian to offer his services as a teacher.

He plans to remain in China "for at least two years". What would bring him back? "I don't know, seeing the world is my only ambition right now."

Where Britons go
One in 10 UK citizens are now thought to live abroad, although robust government figures are hard to find. Britain, after all, has no passport controls on leaving the country and Britons are not obliged to register with their local consulate.

The Institute for Public Policy Research, however, last year said Australia remained the most popular destination for emigrants.

The left-of-centre think-tank, in work commissioned for the BBC, found Britons all over the world, including nearly two hundred in Albania and a pair of pensioners in Mongolia.

Figures were up sharply for Asian nations like China, Thailand, Pakistan, UAE and Singapore.

Top destinations:
Australia 1,300,000
Spain 761,000
United States 678,000
Canada 603,000
Ireland 291,000
New Zealand 215,000
South Africa 212,000
France 200,000

'Treated like slaves'
Migrant workers who come to Scotland for seasonal employment are being treated like "modern-day slaves", it was claimed yesterday.

Sue Smith, who campaigns for migrant workers in Arbroath, said many workers were in debt to their farmer bosses and living in disgraceful conditions. Thousands of workers from Poland, Bulgaria and other Eastern European countries come to Scotland every year for seasonal work, particularly fruitpicking.

Mrs Smith said many returned to their home countries disillusioned, after promises of good wages and accommodation failed to materialise. "It is nothing less than modern-day slavery," she said. "They have to work the first week with no wages because it goes towards the rent. It is debt bondage."

Mrs Smith, who runs a drop-in centre in Arbroath for migrant workers, started campaigning to improve conditions for them after a Czech man was murdered in Arbroath in 2005.