There has been a sharp increase in the number of Dutch nationals living in another European country over the past five years, but the percentage of Dutch who have moved elsewhere is still below the EU average.

New figures from the European statistics agency Eurostat show that 3.2% of the Dutch live elsewhere in the EU, a rise of 0.5 percentage points on five years ago. But this is still below the EU average of 3.8%, Eurostat said.

The most mobile Europeans are Romanians – almost 20% of the population live elsewhere in Europe. Germans are the most stay-at-home Europeans, followed by the British.

Other research published earlier this week showed the Dutch are among the least likely Europeans to want to work abroad.

The research among almost 10,000 EU workers by salary processor ADP, showed that just 3% of Dutch workers are open to working in another European country, the lowest rate among all eight EU countries in the study.