US and UK youth desperate for an expat life overseas

It seems it’s not just Britons fleeing Brexit before it’s too late who’re starting a diaspora, as more American citizens than ever before want to expatriate.

Whether it’s down to the USA’s polarised political climate or the massive costs of healthcare, a record number of US citizens are desperate to leave what used to be the land of the brave and free. In the past, figures of would-be expats hovered around 10 per cent of the population, but today’s figure is 16 per cent and rising. Demographically speaking, that’s a total of 46.5 million Americans who’d rather be living somewhere else on the planet!

Worse news still is the age breakdown of those wanting to leave, with the Gallup Poll responsible for the scary numbers using age as a defining factor. Younger people, it seems, are the most dissatisfied with their lives and account for 30 per cent in general, with women under 30 years of age desperate to leave coming in at 40 per cent and men accounting for 20 per cent. Given the prevailing wisdom that any nation’s youth is its future, America’s future may well be hanging by a thread, especially as the survey revealed the older citizens get, the less likely they are to emigrate.

Another fascinating and possibly frightening statistic is that the lower the salary, the more likely that emigration is seen as the answer. Inflation in the USA is a major issue, with rents rising faster than ever before and student loan debt crushing graduates’ dreams of the good life. Manufacturing and the service industries are major employers of lower-salaried workers, with the loss of a good percentage to emigration having a potentially devastating effect on the US economy.

The one positive result of the Gallup Poll survey is that Mexico is the favourite US expat destination, with the country hosting just under a million disenchanted, fully documented Americans and another million unregistered but happy to be there. America’s down-south next-door neighbour holds a mixed expat community comprised of all ages including retirees, and the country is now becoming popular with expats from across the waters in Europe and the UK.