Why fewer americans live abroad

Americans with lower levels of education are much less likely to have traveled widely than those with more schooling. College graduates are also more likely to have been to multiple countries: A quarter have been to 10 or more countries.

Still, men and women are equally likely to have been to only one country. When it comes to party affiliation, there are no significant differences in the share of Republicans and Democrats who have traveled internationally or in the number of countries they have visited. They are also more likely to have been to many countries.

Note: Here are the questions used for the report, along with responses, and its methodology. Fresh data delivered Saturday mornings. It organizes the public into nine distinct groups, based on an analysis of their attitudes and values.

Even in a polarized era, the survey reveals deep divisions in both partisan coalitions. Use this tool to compare the groups on some key topics and their demographics. Pew Research Center now uses as the last birth year for Millennials in our work. President Michael Dimock explains why.

The estimates have, for the most part, relied upon administrative records, rather than census forms filled out by individuals. However, these methods are not entirely accurate, as many Americans abroad, without a U. The Census Bureau is addressing these concerns by recommending that, in preparation for Census , a test be undertaken using administrative records to estimate the non-federally affiliated overseas population too.

Table 1 lists the counts of federally-affiliated U. The federally affiliated population has been included in congressional apportionment based upon the , , , and censuses. Following intensive lobbying by overseas American groups with support from Congress, the Census Bureau undertook a feasibility test of overseas enumeration, including civilian U. In addition to the U. The World Bank, in its bilateral counts of migrant stock by source and destination countries, estimates that 2.

As the report authors point out, "Even the most widely-cited estimates of global migrant stocks available from the United Nations Population Division appear to undercount the actual stock of migrants in a number of countries.

Additionally, these data do not include a number of countries—perhaps for lack of good quality data or data altogether—including Afghanistan, where the presence of U. The Overseas American Academy extrapolated from consular reports of births of U. As innovative as this method is, it assumes a fixed fertility rate, which is not necessarily the case.

In attempting to develop new means of estimating the population of Americans living abroad, the Census Bureau has calculated alternative native-born emigration rates based on expanding its use of foreign data sources. Other researchers have also relied on foreign sources to estimate the size of the American population living overseas—the serious limitations of which have been explored above. The United States is not the only country to struggle with counting its population living abroad.

Most countries do not enumerate those leaving as carefully as they do those arriving; the United States is no exception. A few studies have been carried out which estimated the number of Australians and British citizens abroad, also revealing difficulty in arriving at a clear figure; estimates for the former range from , to ,, and for the latter, from 4. Even so, the range of estimates in the case of the United States is particularly broad.

One reason for the interest in knowing how many citizens live overseas is the role of external citizens in home-country elections. Their impact, in countries across the globe, has grown in recent years. According to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance and the Federal Electoral Institute of Mexico, nations and territories allowed their overseas citizens to vote in national elections in , and since then many more have signed on, including El Salvador in January The political engagement of migrants in their home country, or political transnationalism, is often expressed through voting in home-country elections and, indeed, Americans are no different.

The United States is one of few countries that require its citizens abroad to file annual tax returns and additionally requires reporting on monies held overseas; the increased reporting requirements led to sharply increased citizenship renunciations in see Renouncing U. Citizenship: A New Trend? These ties between Americans abroad and their country are longstanding; overseas Americans have been taxed since and won the right to vote in , thanks to overseas American grassroots lobbying which, among other statements, argued for "No taxation without representation.

Collaborative efforts to produce more reliable estimates of overseas populations continue. A recent UN working group, the Suitland group, and country statistical offices are coordinating to estimate their citizens' exits and others' arrivals more accurately, including a comprehensive review of different techniques of doing so.

The question of how many Americans are living overseas may soon have a clearer answer. For more information about Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels' study, stay tuned for her forthcoming book, Migrants or Expatriates?

Americans in Europe , Basingstoke: Palgrave. The Source is grateful to Palgrave for permission to publish this article, which does not contain any text directly taken from the book manuscript. Agunias, Dovelyn Rannveig. Migration Information Source. Available online. Fordham Law Review 75 5. Population Division Working Paper No. Census Bureau. Chishti, Muzaffar and Claire Bergeron.

Migration Policy Institute. Chishti, Muzaffar and Faye Hipsman. Renouncing U. Crook, Karen and Shirley Druetto. Washington, DC: U. London: Institute for Public Policy Research. Gibbs, James C. Harper, Marc J. Rubin, and Hyon B. Evaluating Components of International Migration.

Native Emigrants. Working Paper Government Accountability Office. Kelley, Carol E. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Klekowski von Koppenfels, Amanda. The ability to set your own schedule in a new career, and be surrounded by a more leisurely way of life, could be a uniquely American reason for leaving the country to work abroad. A recent Gallup report found that U. Even expats working in the U. The adage "that 'people in the U. Meanwhile, American expats are overwhelmingly happy with the newfound work-life balance they get while living and working abroad and rate their job security and working hours favorably.

However, Americans might be gaining better work-life balance at the expense of having fewer opportunities to advance in their careers while they're abroad.

Relocating internationally could result in a career stall, if not setback, if the worker has to overcome a language barrier, navigate a limited local job market or figure out how their educational qualifications translate to a new country, Zeeck tells CNBC Make It.