How many Americans have lived or worked internationally?

I wrote about this topic previously but have new and surprising data.

• According to a 2021 Pew Research study, 93% of ADULTS with a college degree have traveled internationally, and about 70% of that group have visited 3+ countries.
• Pew found that 90% of American adults whose household income is greater than $80,000/year have traveled internationally.
• About 72% of those with incomes between $30,000 and $80,000 have traveled.
• International travel falls to 48% of those with less than $30,000. (Keep in mind that incomes vary over time – a person may today be retired on a limited income but had a greater income in the past when they traveled.)
• In 2018 (pre-pandemic) between about 7 and 11 million Americans traveled abroad every month (depends on month, more in the summer, for example).

WOW.

To put that in context, 89% of U.S. adults have a driver’s license.

My perception was that 100% of my peers had traveled internationally – and my perception was spot on.

How many Americans have, at some point, lived in another country?

Could not find an answer to that so produced a broad estimate – near 1 in 3 residents of the U.S. may have lived in another country at some point in their life. (See revision below – it’s probably 40+%.)

An estimated 15% of U.S. residents were born in another country. For some states, such as California, the percentage is higher, at about 27%. Within some specific work fields, like tech in Silicon Valley, it may be 70%, and up to 50% in Seattle.

In any year, about 1.4-2.7% of Americans are estimated as living or working abroad. This group includes persons who work abroad for 6 months, or a few years, and then return. Over time, this cumulatively is a large percentage as new persons replace those who have returned to the U.S. For example, if the rotation in this group is 1/2% per year, that could add up to 10% of the population over 20 years, and more over a longer period of years.

I understand most military personnel will be stationed abroad at least once during time in the military – about 1 million are stationed abroad each year. As of 2018, about 7% of the adult population of the US was a veteran.

Almost one-half million students study and live abroad each year, as high school exchange students or as college study abroad students. Over a period of time, this adds up cumulatively to a large number of U.S. residents who have lived abroad. Up to 20% of 4-year students that have graduated, have studied abroad. (Note – the # varies by year and has been increasing over time.)

15% + 3% + 7% is 25%. That’s 1 in 4 U.S. residents.

Next, add in those who worked abroad in the past, but have moved back to the U.S., or those who have studied abroad, and this can add 10-15% more to the total over 20 or more years.

Thus, a reasonable estimate is 35% or more of U.S. residents have had experiencing living abroad for some period ranging from a summer to years long trips.

Obviously, there may be overlap between these groups – for example, a foreign-born American resident may do a study abroad in college and then join the U.S. military, and then take a foreign job! My simple estimate would count that person 3 times!

A reasonable guess is at least 1 in 4, and probably 1 in 3 U.S. residents have studied, lived or worked abroad.

Related – why do people move abroad? “25% have done it for family reasons, 23% for work reasons, and 23% for “other reasons”.“

UPDATE 1: Up to 40+% of the U.S. population may have lived abroad at some point in their life.

Update 2: Many who lived abroad had children who accompanied them during their work assignment or other experiences abroad. These children were not included in my original estimate of 1 in 3, above. For example: I moved with my 3 kids to Spain. They had a hard time adjusting to the food and schools when we moved back to the US. (military family).

Update 3: Many Americans experienced foreign countries and cultures due to annual travel to visit relatives in their “home country” – this is common for those whose parents and/or grandparents were immigrants. As children growing up, their families visited their “home country” for 2-6 weeks every summer. Over the course of their childhood, some effectively lived 1-2 years abroad (6 weeks times 15 years is 90 weeks). Many learned to speak their native language in order to converse with relatives in their “home country”. These people were not included in the 1 in 3 estimates, above.

Update 4: About 1 in 4 U.S. workers in STEM were born in another country. Within some STEM occupations, it is common that 40-50% of the workforce were born abroad, studied abroad, lived or worked abroad. In engineering and science fields, up to 70% of those in PhD programs are foreign born, and in some fields like computer science, this is also true for Masters programs. Corollary: if you are a graduate educated STEM worker, you really, really, really need to have gotten some international experience.

In a globalized world, who will move into management positions and grow their career upwards?

A survey of employers found 64% were more likely to give “greater professional responsibility” to those with international experience.

Since that survey encompassed all types of businesses, the percentage is much higher in multi-national corporations and businesses that have international sales, and in most STEM fields. Within businesses doing international sales, this approaches 100% who are more likely to give responsibility and promotions to those with international experience.