‘We’re Leaving’: Record Numbers of Americans Quit US Amid Cost Crisis and Political Chaos, Report Says
Americans appear to be leaving the U.S. at once-in-a-century levels, driven by divisive politics and a growing cost-of-living crisis.
In 2025, the number of Americans leaving the country for good contributed to what is estimated to be the first net outward migration of the U.S. population in decades something that may not have occurred since the 1929 Great Depression.
“Previously, the Americans leaving were super-adventurous and well-credentialed,” Jen Barnett, founder of the resettlement consultancy firm Expatsi, told The Wall Street Journal. “Now they’re ordinary people, like me.” In 2024, Barnett joined the trend herself, relocating to Yucatán, Mexico.
The U.S. government does not officially track how many Americans resettle abroad, so estimates vary. In 2025, net outward migration ranged between negative 10,000 and negative 295,000 people, Brookings estimates, with a similar negative trend forecast for 2026.
Other estimates suggest the outflow was closer to 150,000 people in 2025.
Before 2009, a typical year saw between 200 and 400 people renounce their citizenship. By 2025, that number was approaching 5,000, with more renunciations expected this year as fees have dropped significantly.
Nearly all 27 member states of the European Union have recorded rising numbers of Americans moving there to live and work in recent years, a Wall Street Journal analysis found.
Outside of Europe, Mexico remains another popular destination. Approximately 1.6 million Americans live there, the State Department estimates, making it the largest concentration of American expats in the world.
Even more Americans are considering making the move.
A November 2025 Gallup poll found that one in five Americans would like to move permanently abroad—double the share from a decade earlier.
A variety of factors are driving the trend, according to the data, including political disagreements and affordability challenges. In addition, “golden visas” for foreign investors, remote work opportunities, and incentives for digital nomads have opened new pathways for leaving the U.S.
“For the better part of two centuries, the story of American migration ran in a single direction: inward,” Global Citizen Solutions, a citizenship advisory firm, wrote in a recent report. “The United States was the gravitational center of global human movement, the place people came to, not the place people left. That narrative is shifting.”
According to a February 2025 Harris poll, 68 percent of Americans considering leaving the U.S. cited unattainable homeownership and a feeling they were “merely surviving instead of thriving.” Meanwhile, 49 percent pointed to high living expenses and disagreements with the political situation in the country.
Within the U.S., a separate migration trend is also underway, as high-cost states like California and Hawaii have lost population in recent years.
