WASHINGTON – For the second year in a row, about one in five Americans say they would like to leave the United States and move permanently to another country if they could. The increased desire to migrate is primarily caused by young women.
In 2025, 40% of women aged 15 to 44 say they would move abroad permanently if they had the chance. The current figure is four times higher than the 10% who shared this desire in 2014, when it was broadly in line with other age and gender groups.
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The percentage of young women wanting to move to another country first rose sharply in 2016, the final year of President Barack Obama's second term. That same year, Gallup conducted US polls in June and July, after the presumptive candidates of both parties were determined in the November election, which Donald Trump subsequently won. The desire to migrate continued to rise after that, reaching 44% in President Joe Biden's final year in office and remaining around that level in 2025. This suggests a broader shift in opinion among young women, rather than a purely partisan shift.
The surge in the number of young women wanting to leave the US has created a large gender gap between them and their male counterparts. Today's gap of 21 percentage points between young men (19%) and women (40%) wanting to leave the U.S. is the largest of this trend recorded by Gallup.
Since Gallup began global research on the issue in 2007, few countries have shown such a wide gender gap in the desire to migrate. Before the United States in 2025, no country recorded a gap of 20 points or more between young men and women.
Gallup's question concerns wish migrate, so these results reflect aspirations rather than intentions. Previous Gallup Research shows that not everyone who wants to move will move. However, data shows that millions of young American women are increasingly imagining their futures elsewhere.
While the desire to move permanently is currently elevated among American men and women under age 45, it remains relatively low among their peers age 45 and older.
What hasn't changed is where these young women would like to go. Canada remains the top destination for young American women looking to leave, with 11% naming Canada as their top destination in the years after 2022, ahead of New Zealand, Italy and Japan (all 5%).
Young women in other advanced economies don't share the desire to move
The growing trend in the number of young women in the United States wanting to leave their country is not evident in other advanced economies. Across the 38 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the percentage of young women who said they would like to migrate has remained relatively stable over the years, typically averaging between 20% and 30%.
For much of the late 2000s and early 2010s, young American women were less they are more likely to want to move than their peers abroad. The situation changed around 2016. Since then, they have been more likely than young women in other rich countries to say they would leave their homeland forever. In contrast, US men aged 15 to 44 remain less likely than average to migrate compared to their peers in OECD countries.
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Politics plays a role along with age and gender
Growing interest in leaving the United States is determined not only by age and gender, but also by political views. In 2025, the gap in willingness to migrate between Americans who approve and those who disapprove of the country's leadership will be 25 points.
The desire to leave the United States permanently was not always such a politicized issue. Between 2008 and 2016, migration aspirations were similar regardless of views on the country's leadership. This is the first time since Trump's election in 2017 that the gap has exceeded 10 points. During Trump's first term, the difference in migration aspirations between those approving and those disapproving of national leadership averaged 14 points. Under Biden, the gap narrowed to eight points before widening to 25 points in 2025, the first year of Trump's second term.
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Young women's much stronger orientation toward the Democratic Party than other age and gender groups helps explain some of the differences in willingness to move abroad. By 2025, 59% of women ages 18 to 44 identify as Democrats or lean, compared to 39% of younger men, 53% of older women and 37% of older men.
The desire to migrate is growing among both single and married women
The people most likely to express a desire to migrate are usually those with greater mobilityfor example, the unmarried, those without children at home, and young adults. However, among American women aged 18 to 44, the desire to migrate has increased, regardless of marital status.
Between 2024 and 2025, at least two in five young women – 41% married and 45% single – said they would like to move abroad permanently if they had the chance. This is the narrowest gap by marital status among young women looking to move that Gallup has recorded since its first inquiry, suggesting that young married women increasingly do not view marriage as a barrier to migration.
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The same pattern holds true for having small children at home. Among young women with children living at home, 40% say they would like to leave the United States permanently, the same percentage among those without children (44%). If these women had followed through on their desire to migrate, it is likely that they would have taken the next generation with them.
Young women are losing faith in American institutions
Across demographic groups, Americans with lower trust in institutions such as the government, the judiciary, the military, and the integrity of elections are consistently more likely to express a desire to leave the country.
Over the past decade, young women have not only shown the greatest increase in desire to move abroad, but have also experienced the sharpest drop in institutional confidence of any age and gender group.
In 2015, women ages 15 to 44 scored an average of 57 on the Gallup National Institutes Index, which measures trust in the nation's government, military, judicial system and election integrity.
Since then, young women's scores have fallen 17 points—a steeper decline than seen for any other demographic group—and have fallen under both the Trump and Biden administrations. By comparison, women ages 45 and older and men ages 15 to 44 remained broadly stable in their trust in institutions, while the score among men ages 45 and older increased by 15 points.
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Supreme Court in 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health The decision that repealed the constitutional right to abortion may have contributed to young women's falling rankings on the National Institutions Index—particularly a sharp drop in their trust in the judicial system, which fell from 55% in 2015 to 32% in 2025, more than any other age group. However, when it comes to the desire to migrate, Dobbs The decision itself may have played a more limited role, given that the tendency to want to leave began years before the decision was made.
Bottom line
More Americans than at any time in the last two decades say they would like to leave the US permanently, and since 2017 these sentiments have become increasingly politicized. Young American women's desire to leave the United States has risen to unprecedented levels in recent years, widening the gender gap to more than 20 points, the largest for any country in the global survey.
Unlike their peers in other advanced economies, young American women now stand out from the rest of the United States in several ways. They increasingly lack faith in national institutions and see their future beyond America's borders.
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For full methodology and specific survey dates, see Gallup dataset details by country. Find out more about how Gallup World Poll works.
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