Key Statistics on Americans Moving Abroad:
- Mexico is the top destination for Americans moving abroad, followed by the U.K., Canada and Australia
- So far in 2022, ~75% more Americans have moved to Mexico than Canada
- Portugal has seen the biggest percentage increase in Americans moving in (+122% from 2019-2021)
- Japan had the highest % drop of Americans moving in (-53% fewer in 2021 compared to 2019)
- A five-year low, 2020 saw just under 74,000 Americans relocate abroad
- Canada, Spain and the U.K. are the most Googled moving destinations this year
In our last study on Americans moving abroad, we detailed the places Americans who leave the country target, as well as explored some of the reasons driving them to leave.
Nearly two years later, now is as great a time as ever to revisit American immigration, given recent high-profile Supreme Court decisions, a spike in the cost of living, and chronically unaffordable housing all among the major issues contributing to a persistent global perception that America is a less desirable place to live.
But what do the numbers say?
In this study, we examine what countries Americans have been moving to, where they’re thinking of moving based on their Google searches, and how both of those trends have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Going South? Mexico Tops U.K. and Canada as Americans’ Top Destination
Based on the most recent data, over 16,000 U.S. citizens moved to Mexico as temporary or permanent residents in 2021. That’s more than any of the 15 most common destination countries for American moves abroad (more on this later).
“Last year, 34% more Americans relocated to Mexico than to Canada.”
Moves to Mexico outnumber those to the United Kingdom(14,626), and Canada (11,955), which are the second and third most popular destinations. The fourth most popular destination is Australia, where an estimated 7,948 Americans relocated in 2021.
Spain rounds off the top five, welcoming 7,173 Americans as new residents this year, overtaking other European destinations like France and Germany, as well as countries farther afield, such as Israel, Japan, and New Zealand.
Where to Now? Where Americans Are Ending up in 2022
While the statistics on moves this year haven’t been published by most of the countries we analyzed, we do have specific figures on the number of Americans who moved to Canada, the U.K., and Mexico in 2022.
Some 10,594 Americans moved to Mexico in 2022, which is 75% higher than those who moved to Canada (6,025). And this isn’t the first time Mexico-bound moves outnumber moves to Canada either.
Last year, 34% more Americans relocated to Mexico than to Canada. In the last five years, Mexico attracted an accumulative 13% more U.S. citizens than America’s neighbor to the north.
If migration to Mexico continues at its current pace, the country will receive over 18,000 U.S. citizens as new residents,a new five-year high.
Interestingly, more Americans are even moving across the Atlantic to the U.K. than across their northern border. (As many as 8,324 U.S. citizens have relocated to the United Kingdom so far in 2022, which is 38% more than the number of those who moved to Canada.)
Yet while still high, the total tally of Americans moving to the U.K. and Canada in 2022 currently projects at 14,269 and 10,328 respectively—both below their 2021 levels.
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Goodbye, Japan! Hello, Portugal! Unique Trends in U.S. Moves Abroad
Between 2017-2019, the raw number of Americans moving into one of the top 15 countries we profiled was roughly around 104,000 Americans a year.
The COVID pandemic made a significant dent in that number in 2020, bringing the number down to under 74,000 Americans leaving for new countries, roughly a 29% drop.
Yet as COVID restrictions have eased and vaccination programs have been introduced across the world, moves abroad picked up the pace again in 2021 (the last year for which government data has been released); moves abroad reached 97,806 last year— almost on par with the pre-pandemic years.
Based on countries that published their immigration statistics for 2022, the number of Americans moving to one of the top 15 countries in our analysis may return to six-digit figures by the end of 2022. However, with an estimated 100,975 moves, ex-pats likely will remain just below pre-pandemic levels.
Countries Defying the Numbers
Overall, there are still outlier countries that saw a significant jump in their total of American immigrants during 2021. Chief among them is Portugal, with 2,475 U.S. citizens relocating to this European country last year. That’s ~122% more Americans who moved there than in either 2020 or 2019!
“Canada may not be topping the rankings of move destinations, but it sure dominates moving intent. Americans typed ‘moving to Canada’ into Google approximately 21,000 a month in 2022, far more than similar keywords for other countries.”
Other countries that saw a significant percentage increase in the number of U.S. inbound moves post-pandemic include New Zealand (+78% in 2021 versus 2019), Costa Rica (+47%), and Israel (+40%).
That said, not all countries saw a return to pre-pandemic moving levels. With 2,983 moves last year, U.S. migration to Japan is still 53% below the 2019 levels. (This is no surprise, as the country has only just recently opened its borders to individual tourists.)
Elsewhere, six major countries that are traditionally among the most popular destinations for Americans saw fewer Americans moving to them in 2021 as compared to 2019. These countriesare:
- Italy (-41%)
- France (-28%)
- Germany (-24%)
- Ireland (-21%),
- U.K. (-20%),
- South Korea (-16%)
Moving Intent: Most Searched Moving Abroad Destinations in 2022
Canada may not be topping the rankings of move destinations, but it sure dominates moving intent.
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Americans typed “moving to Canada” into Google approximately 21,000 a month in 2022, far more than similar keywords for other countries.
Surprisingly, the second most searched-for moving destination is not Mexico, but Spain, with 8,100 monthly searches so far this year. It’s just ahead of the three English-speaking countries: the ever-present U.K. (7,670 monthly searches), Australia (5,080), and New Zealand (3,800).
The top 20 most-searched-for-moving destinations are grouped as follows:
Some of these countries have historical ties to the United States, such as Japan (2,850 monthly searches), Ireland (2,140), and the Netherlands (1,190). Yet many are simply known for their relative prosperity and robust social welfare systems, such as Switzerland, Iceland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
Then there are places most known for their warm, pleasant climates and comparatively lower cost of living, like Portugal, Costa Rica, Mexico and Belize.
Lockdown Dreams Vs. COVID Reality: As Intent To Move Abroad Peaked in 2020, Actual Moves Plummeted
After diving deeper into Americans’ plans to move abroad, an interesting trend emerged. The number of searches for keywords around moving abroad was at a five-year high in 2020.
During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (also an election year), America saw 102,000 monthly searches related to moving abroad, or to a particular country. This was a whopping 40% increase from the year prior!
However, this five-year high in searches ironically overlapped with a five-year low in actual moves abroad. Again, just under 74,000 Americans moved into one of the top 15 destination countries in 2020. That’s around 30% fewer than in either 2018 or 2019.
In 2021, moving abroad-related searches went back down, with about 28% fewer searches compared to 2020. Yet wanderlust has interestingly recovered in 2022; there have been 92,000 monthly searches for moving abroad, including to specific countries.
While still behind the 2020 peak of Canadian obsession, the current volume of searches is still higher than in the pre-pandemic years.
Mixed Picture: Reasons Why Americans Leave the United States
In absence of hard data, it’s hard to pinpoint the exact reasons that are pushing Americans to move abroad. A recent article in Entrepreneur suggests the recent strengthening of the dollar and the rise of remote work play a part.
Reports in Forbes and Bloomberg both hint that the prospect of home ownership getting further out of reach is what is pushing Americans out of the country. In this vein, remote work and remote-work-specific visas are cited as contributing factors for defectors.
The truth is it’s still too early to definitively tell whether recent political events in the U.S. will shape immigration. However, what we do know is there continues to be an increasing number of reports of young Americans and people of color leaving the country in search of a safer and more equitable place to live.
