Americans leaving US in record numbers

Poll: Record number of Americans want to leave country

The Hill,

4 January, 2019

More Americans than ever say they want to leave the country, according to a new survey.

A poll conducted by Gallup found that 16 percent of Americans it surveyed said they wanted to permanently move to another country.

Those numbers are the highest ever recorded by Gallup and coincide with President Trump taking office.

When former president Barack Obama was in the White House, 10 percent of respondents said they wanted to leave the country, compared to roughly 11 percent when George W. Bush held office.

During the first two years of Trump’s presidency, 30 percent of Americans under the age of 30 said they would like to move, with 40 percent of women in that age group feeling the same way.

Gallup’s survey found that respondents view of Trump’s presidency was the single largest factor regarding their desire to leave the country, outpacing gender, age or income.

Canada topped the list of countries respondents said they would want to move to. Twenty-six percent of Americans surveyed said Canada was their top choice, compared to 12 percent who said the same in 2016

The poll is an average of surveys conducted in both 2017 and 2018. The surveyed was conducted by phone and interviewed 1,000 Americans aged 15 and older. The poll has a 3.6 percentage point margin of error.