Record Number of Americans Are Leaving the US, per CNBC
CNBC reports the US saw net negative migration in 2025 for the first time in at least 50 years, with Brookings estimating up to 295,000 net departures. Here is what the trend means for housing, payments, and brokerages.
A record number of Americans are packing up and heading abroad, and the data is finally catching up to the anecdote. Per CNBC, the US saw net negative migration in 2025 for the first time in at least half a century.
The numbers
The country saw a net negative migration of between 10,000 and 295,000 people in 2025, according to research from The Brookings Institution. It is the first time in at least 50 years that more people moved out of the country than moved in.
The widest estimated range was among people who left voluntarily, with Brookings estimating that between 210,000 to 405,000 people did so last year.
Total in-migration fell to between 2.6 and 2.7 million in 2025, down from nearly 6 million in 2023, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Why they are going
Restrictive immigration policies and deportation efforts play a role, according to Brookings. Some US citizens are emigrating for school, work, raising a family, retirement and everything in between.
Remote work, rising living costs, and lifestyle preferences are key drivers. Cost of living, health care access, and quality of life consistently rank as top motivators for expatriation across multiple surveys.
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Renunciations and citizenship requests are climbing
According to The Wall Street Journal, renunciation requests are also rising. The US government has a month-long backlog of Americans seeking to give up citizenship, either to secure a foreign passport or to avoid taxation on overseas earnings. Requests jumped 48 per cent in 2024 and likely rose further in 2025, immigration firms say.
In the UK, Americans are applying for British citizenship at the highest rate since 2004, when record keeping began. In the first three months of last year, roughly 6,600 applied.
Why this matters for markets
A shrinking labor pool and a smaller net inflow of consumers is a slow-burn macro story, but not a small one. Fewer workers and fewer households weigh on housing demand, consumer spending, and wage growth at the margin.
Outflows of capital and high-net-worth individuals also matter for wealth managers, brokerages, and private banks tracking client domiciles. The administration has countered that ultra-wealthy foreigners are still arriving, with a White House spokesman citing some paying “$1 million for a Gold Card to come settle in the United States.”
Options market and stocks to watch
Watch for follow-through in names tied to relocation, cross-border money flow, and housing demand:
- WISE: cross-border payments provider, a direct beneficiary of more Americans moving money abroad.
- WU: Western Union, watch remittance flows tied to expat populations.
- ABNB: long-stay and digital-nomad bookings are a growing share of revenue.
- DHI and LEN: homebuilders to watch if net migration keeps trending negative and weighs on household formation.
- SCHW: brokerages with expat-facing accounts could see flows shift as renunciations climb.
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