A record number of Americans left the United States last year, with data from the Brookings Institution showing between 210,000 and 405,000 people voluntarily moved overseas, marking the first time in at least half a century that more departed than arrived.
For decades, the U.S. was seen as a place to pursue a better life, often called "The American Dream." But surveys suggest many now see their future elsewhere.
A Gallup poll found about 20 percent of Americans would like to move abroad, while the Association of American Residents Overseas estimates 5.5 million Americans were already living overseas in 2024, a figure that has since grown.
Jen Barnett, an expat planning coach, said that she had always wanted to live abroad. She moved to Merida, Mexico a decade ago.
"I knew that there was life beyond Huffman, Alabama, and I wanted to see what was out there. In 2016 after the [presidential] election, I said, okay, let's do this," she said.
In 2022 she co-founded Expatsi, a company that helps Americans relocate. She says interest has surged since U.S. President Donald Trump was elected to a second term in 2024.
"It is not as simple as one politician. I think it is the realization that the U.S. is not what we thought it was and a feeling that the social contract has been broken," she said.
Mexico remains the most common destination, followed by Canada. Increasingly, expats are also choosing Uruguay, Costa Rica and Panama in Latin America, as well as Germany and Portugal in Europe.
Many cite crime and gun violence at home, while seeking lower living costs and affordable healthcare abroad.
"The amount of money that you need to retire is millions in the U.S. to guarantee that you can have health care, god forbid you need assisted living, which might cost 10,000 or 15,000 U.S. dollars a month. In a place like Portugal, you could have full-time live-in care for 2,000 dollars a month," she said.
Remote work and technology have made relocation easier, though language barriers, cultural differences and bureaucracy remain challenges.
"Most of the challenges that you face are internal. I think people just need to see others doing it," she said.
Many expats hold visas or dual citizenship, but growing numbers are making the move permanent.
Before 2009, only 200 to 400 Americans renounced their citizenship each year. In 2025, that figure was just under 5,000, with a backlog of about 30,000 awaiting appointments to formally give up their U.S. citizenship.
Record number of Americans moving abroad amid rising cost and discontent
Record number of Americans moving abroad amid rising cost and discontent
Record number of Americans moving abroad amid rising cost and discontent
Confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have topped 5,200, but Africa's top public health agency warned Thursday that the official count may account for only 30 to 40 percent of infections, suggesting the outbreak could be up to three times larger than reported.
The warning came as the DRC government launched an emergency initiative Thursday to reinforce surveillance along the Congo River, seeking to prevent one of Central Africa's busiest transport corridors from carrying the virus toward major cities, including the capital Kinshasa.
According to the latest figures from the DRC's health authorities, as of Aug. 18, 5,208 confirmed cases, including 2,476 deaths, had been reported across six provinces, with a case fatality rate of 47.5 percent. Another 1,115 patients had recovered.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said Thursday that modeling conducted jointly with the DRC's National Institute of Biomedical Research and other partners suggested that the actual burden was substantially higher than confirmed figures indicated.
"We are detecting just 30 to 40 percent," Kyeng Mercy, an Africa CDC official, said at an online press briefing Thursday. "If you have to look at the real burden, we should be over 10,000 to 15,000 cases."
Mercy cautioned that the figures were model-based estimates and therefore subject to uncertainty, but said multiple indicators consistently pointed to significant under-detection.
"Models also have their caveats in terms of uncertainty," said Mercy. "We are just saying that we are not detecting as much as we should, based on certain indicators."
Yap Boum II, head of emergency preparedness and response at Africa CDC, said Thursday at the online briefing that based on the assessment, the outbreak could be three times the current size in terms of the number of confirmed cases.
He also said that fewer than 10 percent of detected cases are currently among known contacts, while fewer than 40 percent of cases have an epidemiological link to another confirmed infection.
Against that backdrop, the DRC government on Thursday launched the "Congo River Without Ebola" initiative, aimed at preventing the country's main river transport artery from becoming another route for the virus to spread.
The plan is designed to block transmission toward major riverside population centers, particularly Kinshasa, a megacity of nearly 20 million people where no Ebola case has been confirmed, while reducing the risk of cross-border spread to the Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic.
Vaccination is also set to become a larger part of the response. An initial 70,000 doses of Ervebo vaccine would be allocated to the DRC, although the vaccine is licensed against Zaire ebolavirus rather than the Bundibugyo strain.
According to the WHO, the International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision informed the DRC government of the immediate release of an initial 70,000 doses.
DR Congo Ebola cases top 5,200 as Africa CDC warns outbreak may be far larger
