How Many Americans Live in Russia
Russia's American presence has thinned to a fraction of its pre-pandemic self, and the statistics thinned with it: most figures for recent years were simply never published.
The American Emigration Revue counts US citizensPeople holding United States citizenship, as counted by Russia's own official records. A separate population from US-born residents; the two are never added. Definitions ›, US-born residentsPeople born in the United States living in Russia, whatever citizenship they hold today. A separate population from US citizens; the two are never added. Definitions ›, naturalizations and long-term permits from official government sources, with every figure cited. This page sets out what Russia publishes, what it does not, and how far the published record can be trusted.
Why Russia's Records, Not Washington's
The ContextThe context every page needs: who counts Americans abroad, and who doesn't.
The United States publishes no count of its own citizens abroad. Its best federal figure, 3.3 million Americans worldwide, is a statistical model built to size the overseas electorate, and the same model said 4.4 million two years earlier. The Census Bureau decided in 1976 to exclude private Americans abroad from the decennial enumeration (overseas federal employees and military are still counted). What Washington publishes instead is fragments: Social Security checks mailed to foreign addresses, tax returns claiming foreign income, quarterly lists of people who gave up their citizenship. See what each federal source actually counts ›
So this project counts from the receiving side. Every figure on this page comes from records Russia itself publishes, read under the same rules applied to every country in the project. Where Russia publishes, it is counted and cited. Where it does not, the gap is shown rather than filled: no estimates, no models. How openly each country reports ›
How Russia Counts Americans
The One CountOne "US presence," one official count. The other measures on this page answer different questions.
What the Research Found
The FindingsFindings from the Russia research, drawn from the official record.
The Figures as Data
The EvidenceMachine-readable copy of the figures on this page, each with the year its source published it. Free to download and reuse with attribution.
| Figure | Value | Vintage | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| US citizens | 1,012 | — | MVD |
| US-born residents | 331 | — | — |
| US-citizen arrivals | 129 | — | — |
| Naturalizations of US citizens | 262 | — | — |
| US visitor arrivals | 7,321 | 2024 | — |
Vintage is the year the publishing authority reported the figure. A dash means the year or publisher is not yet recorded in our dataset for that figure; the Sources and Datasets section below names every publisher behind this page. The free CSV covers the years shown to readers without an account.
How Far to Trust These Figures
The Publishing RecordWhat Russia publishes, how often it publishes, and the sources behind every number on this page.
The gaps: Published as a regular series: resident US citizens, annual arrivals, naturalizations. Published only partially or as one-off estimates: US-born residents. Not published: residence or work permits: those gaps set the grade; they do not make the published figures wrong. What the partial figures can support: US-Born comes as a one-off figure rather than a yearly series: good for a snapshot of today, not for reading a trend.
The 2× gap is consistent with two real population segments: US citizens holding permits, which is an administrative count, and US citizens self-identifying their citizenship at census enumeration, which is likely an undercount given the 8.66% non-response. This page uses the end-2022 permit stock of 1,012 as the closest annual stock proxy. The US-citizen stock series and the naturalisations series both end at 2022, because mid-2023 covers only half a year and no nationality detail is published after that.
Every figure on this page comes from one of the publishers below. Links go to the authority and, where stable, straight to the dataset.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick AnswersEvery answer is drawn from the official record, from the same sources cited across this page.
How many Americans live in Russia?
How many Americans become citizens of Russia?
Does Russia recognize dual citizenship with the United States?
Where do the figures for Americans in Russia come from?
The full series, every year, every country
The public view shows a limited year window for each series. Researchers and journalists can request access to the complete annual record for every country in the project.