The top countries Americans are moving to in 2025 and 2026 split into two distinct rankings: aspirational survey data and actual residence-permit numbers. The two lists overlap, but they don’t match. Portugal tops one. Mexico tops the other.
Expatsi, a US relocation-services company, surveyed 116,363 Americans who used its 20-question assessment tool throughout 2024. Portugal ranked first in both stated interest and algorithmic recommendation, followed by Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy and Ireland. The sample is self-selected, not random, and reflects intent rather than action.
Top countries Americans are moving to by survey interest
The Expatsi data captures motivation. Among respondents, 56% said the US feels “too divided”, 53% cited political polarization, and 41% pointed to financial relief as a primary driver. Two-thirds said they planned to relocate by 2026, with 12% targeting the next six months.
Site traffic data tells a similar story. Expatsi visits jumped from 8,000 in October 2024 to nearly 51,000 in November, the month following the US presidential election. Google searches for relocation queries spiked 1,514% post-election.
Survey results don’t equal residence permits. Expatsi’s own follow-up data shows roughly 5% of relocation-tour participants had actually moved by mid-2025, with another 25% in visa-application stages.
Top countries Americans are moving to by actual permit data
Real residence numbers tell a tighter story. Portugal’s AIMA recorded 19,258 US citizens living in the country at the end of 2024, up from 14,129 in 2023, a 36.3% increase. Around 4,800 US residents obtained Portuguese residence permits in 2024 alone.
Spain absorbed the largest US permit cohort in the EU, Eurostat reports.
US citizens, top EU destinations by 2024 first residence permits:
- Spain: 15,638
- France: 13,062
- Germany: 8,507
- Netherlands: 6,732
- Denmark: 5,183
- Italy, Ireland and Portugal: close behind, with Portugal’s totals lower than its inbound American population suggests because many Americans enter through specialized D7 and D8 visa routes counted differently in EU statistics
Mexico still hosts the largest US-citizen population by absolute count. The Association of Americans Resident Overseas estimates roughly 1.6 million Americans in Mexico, up about 70% between 2019 and 2022.
Why renunciation data matters
Q1 2025 saw 1,285 US citizenship renunciations recorded in the Federal Register, a 102.4% jump from Q4 2024. Full-year 2025 estimates project the total exceeding 4,900, which would approach record territory.
Renunciation tracks formal tax-residency exits, not relocations. The two correlate but aren’t interchangeable. Most Americans abroad keep their US passports.
What this tells us about American emigration patterns
The aspirational and actual rankings diverge in informative ways. Portugal punches above its size in stated preference because of D7 and D8 visa accessibility, EU citizenship pathways and lifestyle marketing. Spain and France quietly absorb larger absolute numbers through standard work, family and study permits.
The data quality varies by country. Portugal and the EU publish granular nationality breakdowns. Mexico’s INM data is less consistent. Canada and the UK don’t publish comparable annual breakdowns of American residents. The latest news on US citizens relocating abroad tracks these national datasets as they’re released.
What’s unknown is retention. Portugal’s D7 and D8 holders renew at three-year intervals. Spain’s non-lucrative visa requires annual renewal in the first year. The 2026 and 2027 renewal data will reveal which country actually retains the Americans who arrived during the post-election surge.
