The media promotes many nonsense stories as if everyone is doing something. Here’s a list of widespread myths promoted by the media:
- Everyone is moving abroad because America is awful. Reality: an estimated 1.4-2.7% of Americans live abroad at any point in time, many for work, study abroad or family reasons. It’s not a big number and is not actually growing in spite of the frequent stories that follow the formula – “America is awful, so these folks moved to country X where everything is wonderful”. Most of these people are abroad temporarily and eventually return to the U.S. See more at Part 1: The myth that Americans can just move abroad for a better life and Part 2: The myth that Americans can just move abroad for a better life. Some of those reported as moving abroad are there only part-time, commuting to and from the U.S. due to 90-day visa limits. About 20% are on temporary military assignments.
- Americans are “flocking” to retire abroad. Reality: Only about 1% of Americans retire abroad and about half of those may have had pre-existing dual citizenship, right of descent citizenship or residency options, or family connections abroad. Not very many Americans retire abroad in spite of the click-bait content mill stories.
- Everyone is moving in to “tiny homes”. Reality: About 0.3% of U.S. homes qualify as a tiny home, using the definition that a tiny home is less than 600 sq ft (average tiny home is about 225 sq ft). See Housing: Tiny Homes?
- Vegetarian eating is growing in the United States. Reality: It’s shrinking. Per Gallop, in 2023 about 1% were vegan and 4% were vegetarian, down from 2%/6% 20 years ago. See The Accidental Vegetarian
- More and more students are taking “gap years” between high school and college, or college and work life. Reality. As of 2015, may be 3% of students took a gap year, and up to 70% of those pursued travel funded by The Bank of Mom and Dad. It’s mostly a rich kid thing. The only survey since then was for 2020, which was not a normal year – so unable to locate updated survey data. See Education: “Gap years”
- The U.S. fertility rate has fallen to 1.62 – because the economy is awful and no one can afford to have kids. Reality: The fertility rate has been falling for over 60 years – it is a long-term trend not connected to the current economic situation. See Demographics: U.S. fertility rate falls to 1.62
US Fertility Rate – not shown, but now at 1.62 in 2023:
