Right now, approximately 9 million Americans live outside the United States. That number has been climbing for years — but in 2025, it didn’t just climb. It surged. Relocation agencies and expat services reported a staggering 90% year-over-year spike in Americans actively relocating abroad. Let that sink in: not a 10% uptick, not a modest increase driven by retirees chasing sunshine — a near-doubling in a single year.
And the generation leading this charge isn’t who most people expect. It’s Gen Z — the cohort that grew up in the age of remote work, borderless digital economies, and Instagram reels of $800/month apartments in Medellín. A 2024 survey found that 63% of Gen Z respondents said they want to leave the United States. Not “think about it someday.” Want to leave. That’s nearly two-thirds of the generation poised to define America’s workforce for the next three decades, and they’re already mapping exits.
Here’s the problem nobody is talking about: the exit window is closing. The destinations that made international relocation so compelling — affordable rent, accessible visas, English-speaking communities, and a favorable exchange rate advantage — are being compressed by the very wave of Americans now rushing toward them. If you’re thinking about leaving, the best time to act was two years ago. The second-best time is now, before the crowd locks you out.
The Numbers Behind the American Exodus
The 9 million Americans already living abroad represent roughly 2.8% of the U.S. population — a figure the State Department has tracked for years. But that baseline number obscures the velocity shift happening right now. The 90% year-over-year relocation spike in 2025 didn’t happen randomly. It was the product of several converging pressures that had been building for years and finally hit a breaking point simultaneously.
U.S. housing costs hit record highs, with the national median home price crossing $430,000 and one-bedroom apartments in major cities averaging over $2,500/month. Healthcare remained the most expensive in the developed world, with the average American family spending over $23,000 per year on premiums and out-of-pocket costs. Student loan burdens intensified as payment pauses ended, and political instability created a persistent background anxiety that many younger Americans found exhausting to live inside.
Meanwhile, remote work normalized the idea that your income doesn’t have to be tied to your zip code. If you can earn a U.S. salary while living in a country where rent costs $600/month and universal healthcare is available to residents, the math becomes impossible to ignore. The exodus isn’t irrational — it’s a rational response to a system that is increasingly failing the people who grew up inside it.
Why Gen Z Is the Most Motivated Generation to Leave
Older generations who want to leave America are largely retirees — people chasing lower costs and better weather after they’ve already accumulated wealth. Gen Z’s calculus is fundamentally different. They’re leaving before they accumulate wealth because America is making it structurally impossible to do so.
The 63% emigration desire figure comes from a reality that Gen Z lives every day: entry-level salaries have not kept pace with the cost of basic adult life. A 25-year-old with a college degree in a mid-tier U.S. city earning $55,000/year, after taxes and student loans, has almost nothing left over after rent, food, transportation, and healthcare. That same person, in Chiang Mai or Porto or Mexico City, can live exceptionally well on $2,000–$2,500/month — saving aggressively, building an emergency fund, and actually experiencing the financial freedom that was supposed to come with a degree and a career.
Gen Z is also the first generation to grow up with remote work as an assumption, not a pandemic exception. They don’t see geographic flexibility as a perk — they see location independence as a baseline expectation. Combined with social media that makes expat life visible and aspirational, the psychological barrier to leaving has collapsed. The question isn’t “could I survive abroad?” anymore. It’s “why am I still here?”
The Cost-of-Living Trap Driving People Out
The three-headed cost crisis — housing, healthcare, and education — isn’t a temporary dip in the economic cycle. It’s a structural feature of the American economy, and it’s getting worse, not better. Let’s run the numbers on what it actually costs to live in the United States versus the most popular expat alternatives.
In Austin, Texas — once celebrated as an affordable alternative to California — the median one-bedroom apartment now runs $1,800–$2,200/month. A comparable apartment in Medellín, Colombia costs $500–$800/month. In Chiang Mai, Thailand, that same apartment goes for $350–$600/month. In Porto, Portugal, pre-expat-wave rents hovered around $800–$1,000/month. These aren’t rough-living situations — these are modern, well-located apartments in cities with world-class food, culture, healthcare infrastructure, and internet connectivity.
Add healthcare into the equation and the gap becomes even more dramatic. Many expat destinations offer either universal public healthcare accessible to legal residents, or private health insurance plans for expats that cost $100–$300/month — covering far more than most U.S. employer plans that cost $600–$800/month just in employee premiums. The financial case for leaving isn’t marginal. For many Americans, it means the difference between building wealth and treading water indefinitely.
The Destinations Getting Expensive Fast
Here’s where the compounding problem becomes urgent. The influx of American (and European) expats into popular destinations has triggered a gentrification loop that mirrors what happened in Brooklyn, Austin, and Portland — but compressed into three to five years instead of twenty. In El Poblado, Medellín’s expat hub, rents rose 40–60% between 2021 and 2024. Long-term local residents are being displaced. Landlords now specifically seek foreign tenants willing to pay dollar-denominated rates.
Mexico City’s Roma and Condesa neighborhoods — once the affordable crown jewels of the expat world — have seen rents surge 35–50% since the remote work wave hit in 2021. A one-bedroom in Condesa that cost $700/month in 2020 now runs $1,200–$1,600/month. The Mexican government has faced increasing pressure from local activists pushing back against what they call “digital nomad colonialism,” and visa discussions around stricter income thresholds are ongoing.
Portugal was the most dramatic case study. Lisbon and Porto became so overwhelmed with foreign buyers and renters — many of them Americans attracted by the Non-Habitual Resident (NHR) tax regime — that the Portuguese government ended the NHR program entirely in 2024. The program had offered foreign residents a flat 20% tax rate for 10 years and was one of the most powerful financial incentives in the expat world. It’s gone. The golden visa program was also curtailed for residential real estate, removing another major entry pathway. Rents in Porto rose over 70% in five years.
Spain is watching what happened to its Iberian neighbor and is already drafting policy responses. Barcelona has been considering caps on expat concentrations in specific neighborhoods. The Canary Islands and Valencia — once under-the-radar expat havens — are fielding growing political pressure around housing shortages attributed in part to foreign digital nomads. The window in these places isn’t closing. For some purposes, it’s already shut.
Which Visa Programs Are Still Open — For Now
The good news: meaningful exit pathways still exist — but the list is shrinking. Here are the visa programs that remain genuinely accessible in 2026 and have not yet been overwhelmed by the American influx.
Panama (Friendly Nations Visa): One of the most accessible residency pathways in the world for Americans. Panama’s Friendly Nations Visa allows citizens from 50 countries, including the U.S., to obtain residency by forming a company or demonstrating economic ties. Panama is dollarized (no currency risk), has no taxes on foreign-sourced income, and Panama City has a surprisingly robust expat infrastructure — good hospitals, international schools, and English-language services. Rents remain reasonable compared to Europe: $800–$1,400/month for quality apartments in desirable neighborhoods.
Georgia (the country): Tbilisi has emerged as one of the most under-the-radar expat cities in the world. American citizens can stay visa-free for a full year. Rents average $400–$700/month for a quality apartment. Georgia operates a territorial tax system — income earned outside Georgia is not taxed locally. Cost of living is exceptionally low, and the country sits at the intersection of Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia with strong flight connections. The expat community is growing but has not yet hit the saturation point that plagued Medellín and Mexico City.
Colombia (Digital Nomad Visa): Despite the price increases in Medellín’s El Poblado, Colombia introduced a digital nomad visa in 2022 that allows remote workers to live legally for up to two years. The key insight: move beyond El Poblado. Laureles and Envigado offer Medellín’s same infrastructure and climate at significantly lower prices. Other Colombian cities — Bogotá’s Chapinero neighborhood, Cartagena, and Santa Marta — remain affordable and largely undiscovered by the American expat crowd.
Malaysia (DE Rantau Nomad Pass): Malaysia’s digital nomad visa targets remote workers earning at least $24,000/year and grants a 12-month stay (renewable for another 12 months). Kuala Lumpur offers extraordinary value — modern infrastructure, world-class healthcare, English is widely spoken, and cost of living is 60–70% below comparable U.S. cities. Malaysia is also strategically positioned as a base for exploring Southeast Asia. This program is still under the radar relative to its quality.
The pattern is clear: the best programs fill up, get restricted, or get overwhelmed. The Americans who locked in Portuguese NHR residency in 2020–2022 secured a decade of favorable tax treatment. Those who waited until 2024 found the door closed. The same dynamic will play out in every destination on this list — the only question is which ones close next and when.
The Financial Steps to Start Now — Even If You’re 2–3 Years Out
The biggest mistake people make with international relocation is treating it as a decision they’ll figure out when they’re ready to leave. By the time you’re emotionally ready, the financial and logistical groundwork takes 12–24 months to lay properly. Here is what to do right now, whether your timeline is six months or three years.
1. Open a Charles Schwab International Account. Schwab’s High Yield Investor Checking account is the gold standard for expats — it reimburses all ATM fees worldwide and has zero foreign transaction fees. Getting this account set up before you have a foreign address is significantly easier. Do it while you still have a U.S. address.
2. Understand your U.S. tax obligations. The United States taxes its citizens on worldwide income regardless of where they live — one of only two countries in the world that does this (the other is Eritrea). This doesn’t mean you’ll owe taxes, but it means you need a strategy. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE) allows qualifying expats to exclude up to $126,500 (2024 figure, indexed for inflation) in foreign-earned income from U.S. taxation. The Foreign Tax Credit is an alternative approach. Get an expat-specialized CPA now, not after you move.
3. Research your target country’s visa income thresholds and move early. Most digital nomad and residency visas require proof of income — typically between $1,500 and $3,500/month depending on the country and program tier. Some require bank statements showing 3–6 months of consistent deposits. Start building that paper trail now. If your income fluctuates, stabilize it before you apply.
4. Do a test relocation before you commit. Spend 60–90 days in your target city. Not as a tourist — as a prospective resident. Rent an apartment (not a hotel or Airbnb), shop at local grocery stores, visit local hospitals and clinics, and meet other expats who have been there 2+ years. The gap between Instagram expat life and daily expat life is real, and it’s better to discover friction points before you’ve shipped your belongings.
5. Track the policy landscape in your target country. Set Google Alerts for “[Country] expat visa 2026,” “[Country] digital nomad restrictions,” and “[Country] housing law changes.” Visa programs change with political cycles. Knowing in advance — rather than after — is the entire competitive advantage available to early movers.
The Window Is Real — And It Is Narrowing
The 63% of Gen Z who want to leave America are not all going to leave. Life intervenes — family ties, careers, inertia, fear. But even if 10% of them follow through over the next decade, that represents millions of people routing their remote income, savings, and housing demand through foreign economies. Every one of them who lands in Tbilisi, Kuala Lumpur, Panama City, or Chiang Mai changes the cost equation for everyone who comes after.
This isn’t pessimism — it’s supply and demand. There is a finite number of quality apartments in El Poblado. There is a finite number of visa slots issued under any given program. There is a finite political tolerance in any host country for an influx of higher-earning foreigners who drive up local prices. Portugal hit that limit. Barcelona is approaching it. The cities that haven’t hit it yet are the ones still worth moving to — and the window to get in before they do is measured in months, not years.
The Americans who are thriving abroad right now didn’t have perfect timing by accident. They made a decision, built a plan, and moved before the crowd. They locked in rents at 2021 prices. They obtained residency under visa programs that no longer exist. They built local networks and community before the expat neighborhoods became overpriced and oversaturated. The best exit is always the one you plan before you need to make it.
If you’re reading this thinking “I’ll start planning when things feel more stable” — that’s the wrong move. Things won’t feel more stable. The cost of waiting is measured in higher rents, closed visa programs, and destinations that no longer have room for you at the price point that made them compelling in the first place. The exit window is open. It won’t stay that way.
