In 2025, 40% of women aged 15 to 44 say they would move abroad permanently if they had the opportunity. The current figure is four times higher than the 10% who shared this desire in 2014, when it was generally in line with other age and gender groups.
The survey found that politics is a major motivator, with the implication that (a) young women lean left, and want to permanently leave, and (b) if that happens, the U.S. becomes more conservative as those leaning left will have left.
Oddly, many of those wishing to move abroad benefited immensely from their American upbringing and wealth – and now resent the country that gave them privilege to consider moving to another country.
But most U.S. citizens lack the ability or privileges required to move abroad and won’t move abroad.
The onslaught of media stories – “America is awful, so this privileged individual/couple/family moved to country X where life is wonderful” – has the expected outcome – convincing the young that the U.S. is the worst country in the history of the world, and anyone can pack up and move abroad.
Public surveys are typically a measure of propaganda effectiveness. Many surveys ask people about subjects they personally would know little about – and the public regurgitates what they saw in the news or from social media.
Mass media is filled with doomerism – devoid of historical context and often divorced from reality. These memes influence what people think they know and think about.
See National public opinion surveys are propaganda messaging in disguise – Social Panic for more about how surveys are primarily measuring the effectiveness of prior propaganda messaing.