The United States experienced negative net migration in 2025, with more people leaving than arriving for the first time in 90 years – and the trend is expected to continue, according to a report.
The last time the phenomenon occurred was in 1935 at the height of the Great Depression, when more than 100,000 Americans struggling to make ends meet applied to emigrate to the Soviet Union to work in its factories, manufacturing plants and mills in pursuit of a fairer way of life.
Now history is repeating itself: according to The Wall Street Journal, which cites data from the Brookings Institution, the U.S. headcount showed a 150,000 deficit last year, while the country recorded a total in-migration of between 2.6 and 2.7 million, down from a recent high of 6 million in 2023.
Although it is difficult to measure the precise extent of the exodus as the U.S. has not kept comprehensive emigration statistics since the Dwight D Eisenhower era in the 1950s, the WSJ calculates there is currently anywhere between 4 and 9 million Americans living abroad, basing its findings on residence permits, foreign home purchases, student enrollments and other available metrics.
There are an estimated 1.6 million people of U.S. origin living in Mexico, the newspaper reports, another 1.5 million in Europe, 325,000 of whom are in the U.K. and 250,000 in Canada.
While liberals might be tempted to blame the departures on President Donald Trump and his aggressive mass deportation program, the Department of Homeland Security records only 675,000 deportations and 2.2 million “self-deportations” last year, meaning people leaving voluntarily in acknowledgement of their undocumented status.
Broader disapproval of Trump could also be responsible, an explanation that has been called “The Donald Dash,” but the WSJ argues the answer is actually far more complex and is not merely about political disaffection, with the “rise of remote work, mounting living costs and an appetite for foreign lifestyles” all playing a part.
“A millions-strong diaspora is studying, telecommuting and retiring overseas,” the newspaper writes, noting that the number of Americans living in Spain and the Netherlands has nearly doubled over the last decade and has more than doubled in the Czech Republic.
The reasons appear to be myriad, from students seeking an overseas adventure to young people drawn to the European ideals of social democracy, workers hoping to stretch their salaries further, and elderly Americans opting for more affordable care homes in exotic locations.
Others offer more personal and damning reasons. “You don’t face the prospect of your five-year-old going into a kindergarten and doing an active shooter drill,” said Chris Ford, an employee of a Texas real estate investment firm now living in Berlin.
“The wages are higher in the U.S. but the quality of life is higher in Europe.”
Americans from a wider variety of states appear to be reaching the same conclusion.
Amanda Slefo, director of Barcelona High School, said her institution was once largely populated by the children of affluent families originally from New York or California: “Now we have Alaska, Utah, Texas, Colorado, Kentucky.”
The influx of new faces is not always warmly received, however.
The WSJ reports anecdotal evidence from cities like Dublin and Lisbon, and from countries as far-flung as Bali, Colombia, and Thailand, of locals expressing exasperation at the takeover of their communities by growing numbers of U.S. expats.
Scotland’s prestigious University of St Andrew, attended by Prince William, is now reportedly so full of American students it is jokingly referred to as “mini-Nantucket.”
The newspaper argues the trend is a much more long-term development than a post-pandemic “laptop nomad” culture could explain, but does credit social media with helping to demystify and encourage foreign travel, offering the example of the R&B star Kelis, who cheerily documents her new life in Kenya on Instagram.
The phenomenon, which has inspired an associated explosion in relocation businesses catering to U.S. citizens seeking to leave, arguably represents a challenge to the cherished notion of “American exceptionalism” and the WSJ raises the question of whether the emigres “personify a loss of faith in America’s future and way of life.”
“The new American dream, for some of its citizens, is to no longer live there,” it concludes.
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