As the population grows older, less than half of Manx student have or wish to return home, but why?

In 2016, the government census showed the island’s population had fallen by 1.4%, but the economically active population had fallen by 8%, with the most significant fall being in the 20-24 age group compared to 2011.

To try to understand why this may be, University College Isle of Man conducted the Manx Graduate Survey on behalf the Department of Education, Sport and Culture.

The aim of the survey was ’to discover more about the influences upon graduate decision making with regard to returning, upon graduation, to the island or not’.

A DESC spokesman admitted: ’This led to a widely publicised concern that this could be an outcome of fewer graduates returning to the island than in previous years.

’The 2017 survey sought to identify any ’instructive’ changes in graduate decision making since 2004 that may have contributed to the decrease in the 20- to 29-yearolds living in the island.’

The report says that 45% of respondents who graduated in 2013/14 to 2015/16 now live on the island with 44.5% of those who graduated in 2017 saying they wanted to return asap and 12.5% within the next two or three years.

Future plans

It also showed that 25% of Manx students were unsure of their future plans and 19% had no intention of returning.

In 2004, a sample of 1,000 Manx students from the previous 10 years showed an estimate of 35 to 50% returned to the island.

The results of the study state a ’like for like’ comparison of these results ’is therefore not possible due to differences in survey design and time span’.

However, ’all three surveys appear to offer a similar ’ball park’ figure of 40 to 50% of graduates returning to the island’.

The Isle of Man has a similar percentage of returning students to the Channel Islands. Jersey reported in 2016 they average about 50% of graduates returning each year, however, in the same year, Guernsey reported only 33% had returned.

The reasons for returning to the island for graduates, has not changed, with the top three answers in each survey being ’my family live here’, ’safe environment’ and ’I like the lifestyle’

Despite this, ’better opportunities for family’, ’good social life’, ’good public services’ and answers relating to partners living on the island returned poor results, suggesting the infrastructure and social life of the island is an issue.

Travel costs

Over a third of those who didn’t return to the island stated issues regarding high cost of travel off the island, restricted social life, poor career prospects and house prices as reasons for their choice.

However housing, including rental costs and property prices were also seen as an issue off island.

The report finished with the argument that a 49% of immigration in 20- to 24-year-olds was the key reason behind the drop in population.

And concluded by stating: ’There is no evidence of a reduction in graduates who return or intend to return to the island in 2017 as compared to 2004.’

The DESC has said there are plans to reexamine the research in 2018 and conduct further studies into Manx graduates.