09/03/2026
Pivotal Research 2026!: Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers by Wall Street Journal
"More citizens are replanting overseas, drawn by a quality of life made easily affordable by the U.S.’s enviable salaries. “I wasn’t expecting to be surrounded by this many Americans.”
Beneath the stormy optics of that crackdown, however, lies a less-noticed reversal: America’s own citizens are leaving in record numbers, replanting themselves and their in lands they find more and .
Yet data on residence permits, foreign home purchases, student enrollments and other metrics from more than 50 countries show that Americans are with their feet to an unprecedented degree.
Some commentators have labeled this wave of the “ ” since numbers have spiked under President Trump’s second term. But the phenomenon has been building for years—fed by the rise of , mounting and an appetite for foreign that feel within reach, especially in .
In nearly all of the ’s 27 member states, the number of arriving to live and work is at a record and rising.
If there was any thought that this was a fleeting pandemic-era experiment of nomads logging in from distant shores, data hints at its longevity.
The booming number of new relocation companies say they’re struggling to keep up with demand. They include LuxNomads for the well-to-do; G**O Tours, attracting critics; Blaxit Global, for Americans, and She Hit Refresh, for the biggest boom market of all, . A Gallup poll last year found 40% of American women, ages 15-44, would like to permanently move , if possible. By comparison, in 2023, the same pollster found that a slightly smaller proportion of sub-Saharan —37%—wished to do the same.
The bargain: The U.S. has larger salaries, mobile talent and millions of citizens craving a better . needs such workers—and their income—to prop up a pension system so top-heavy that retirees now outearn working age adults, according to the Income Study, a research agency. European salaries are constrained by high taxes and low growth. , and real-estate agents want foreign clientele.
McCoy, 45, has since relocated to and works as a consultant helping other with more limited means join the emigrant wave. “You’ll still find people saying only rich people can do this. I have had 15 American clients move to that have been on social security or disability or both,” she said.
“In Albania, you can very easily right now survive on $1,000 a month,” she added. 'I have another consultation with someone tonight.'" - Drew Hinshaw
and Joe Parkinson
Read the full article for more:
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/americans-leaving-the-us-migration-a5795bfa
#1 for the well-to-do; G**O Tours, attracting critics; Blaxit Global Podcast, for Black Americans, and She Hit Refresh, Luxury Nomad Tours & Transfers Blax int She Hit Refresh Gallup
More citizens are replanting overseas, drawn by a quality of life made easily affordable by the U.S.’s enviable salaries.
