In my Part 1 and Part 2 about Americans moving abroad, the theme of these content mill stories is the same: America is awful, so this individual/couple/family moved to country X where life is wonderful.
But in reality, very, very few Americans move abroad.
An estimated 1.4 to 2.7% of American live abroad at any point in time (UPDATE: As of September 2025, the most recent estimate is 1.6% of Americans, not including military, are living abroad.)
Most are abroad temporarily – work abroad, study abroad, military service. Similarly, less than 1% of Americans will retire abroad – and a significant portion of those do so because they have family ties in the destination country, already have pre-existing dual citizenship, or have a right-of-descent immigration privilege due to recent ancestors having moved to the U.S. from another country.
While estimates range from about 4-5 million to 9 million Americans living abroad, some estimates are as low as 2.8 million. (The 9 million figure is from the U.S. Department of State and includes international travelers who are not migrants.) The effect is that probably 1-1.7% of American are living abroad at any point in time – and up to 1 million+ of those may be military personnel and their families.
A 2018 study by the Aegon Center for Longevity and Retirement shows that at least 12 percent of Americans have considered living abroad in older age and retirement. In fact, there were approximately 441,268 U.S. workers living overseas who received Social Security benefits in 2020. It’s a number that continues to grow, across various demographics.
Everything You Need to Know About Retiring Abroad | Condé Nast Traveler (cntraveler.com)
But
Whatever the reasons, Ghilarducci notes that few Americans end up retiring abroad — government data shows a total of roughly 413,000 retired workers getting their Social Security benefits abroad out of the tens of millions who receive these benefits — likely for a few big reasons, including inertia, family ties in the U.S., and Medicare, she adds. Indeed, Medicare mostly only covers health services you get in the U.S.; move to another country and you’ll likely have to pay for health insurance there.
Here are the countries with the most U.S. retirees collecting Social Security – MarketWatch
About 68 million Americans (recent year) receive Social Security retirement benefits now. The figure above, of 441,000 is about 0.7% of those receiving Social Security benefits. About 4% of retirees (9 million) do not receive SS benefits. Thus, SS benefits paid overseas is a reasonable proxy for estimating how many Americans are retired outside the United States – and it is below 1%. (Yes, some might have their Social Security checks routed to someone in the U.S.)
About 27% of those who are living abroad are living in Mexico. About half that are in Canada. It is also very difficult for most Americans to retire to Canada, contrary to the media noise: So, you say you want to retire in Canada | The Seattle Times (Most who “retired” were high skilled workers, such as health care practitioners, who were already working in Canada, or had immigration privileges, like a Canadian spouse. Most Americans at age 65 cannot pack up and move to Canada. It is really, really hard to retire to Canada unless you have a family connection: Retiring in Canada in 2024: The Complete Guide (globalcitizensolutions.com))
The reality is few Americans move abroad permanently, and very few Americans retire abroad – but the media is one giant content mill that pumps out these essentially fake news stories every week.
Here’s an example of another media error – with a huge blooper in it: More Americans Are Moving Abroad Because the US Is Too Expensive (archive.org)
It’s tricky to know exactly how many Americans have relocated to other countries, let alone the details of when or why. But as of 2023, there were almost 161 million US passports in circulation, one for nearly half of all Americans. (A generation ago, only 10% of Americans had a passport.) The State Department estimated in 2020 that a total of 9 million US citizens lived abroad, up from an estimated 5 million in 2010 — though those numbers include dual citizens born and raised abroad. The nonprofit advocacy group American Citizens Abroad puts the figure closer to 4 million.
First, the number of passports has nothing to do with how many Americans have moved abroad.
Second, prior to January 1, 2008, passports were NOT REQUIRED for travel in most of North, Central and South American, and most Caribbean Islands. Passports were not required to enter Canada or Mexico by land until January 1, 2009.
This huge change came as a result of 9/11 – and the establishment of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.
Consequently, today all international travelers must obtain a passport, which was not required for many travelers before 2008. I sent an email to the author of the above “story” but never received a reply.
Thus, citing an increased number of passports as an indicator that more Americans have moved abroad is false logic – the number has to do with a major Federal law change that required passports for many travelers where passports were not previously required.
Further, prior to 1993, passports expired after 5 years – but since then, passports were extended to ten years. As a consequence, if you did travel decades ago, you probably let your passport expire unless you were a frequent traveler.
Plus, the expansion of air travel has made international travel more accessible (until Covid, and then the post Covid high prices).