CEO turnover worldwide had the largest year-over-year drop of the past decade in 2010, reaching its lowest rate since 2003, Bloomberg reported.

A total of 291 CEOs left their companies last year, New York-based management firm Booz & Co. said in a report this week. CEO succession at the world’s 2,500 largest public companies by market capitalization last year declined from 14.3 percent to 11.6 percent.

Another trend shows that CEOs are increasingly based in emerging markets as more than one-fourth of the companies have their headquarters in an emerging economy. The number of companies based in the United States, Canada and Europe fell about 28 percent from 2000, the study showed.

“Within a few years, if this pattern continues, the companies in the world’s mature Western economies could represent a minority of our sample,” Booz & Co. said.

CEOs forced from office dropped to 2.2 percent last year, and planned departures fell to 7.7 percent. More CEOs were chosen from within the company, according to the study. Insiders left CEO jobs after an average of 7.1 years versus 4.3 years for outsiders