Record-Breaking Number Of Americans Want To Get Out Of U.S. Forever

President Donald Trump may have staked his campaign on making America great again, but more citizens than ever before want to get out permanently.

In 2018, 16 percent of Americans said that they would like to move to another country, according to a Gallup poll released Friday. 

While that number matches 2017 data and doesn’t stray much from global standards, it remains significantly higher than it was during the presidencies of Barack Obama or George W. Bush . In the Obama administration, 10 percent wanted to jump ship. The figure was 11 percent in the Bush administration.

The divide between men and women is also telling. Since Trump took office, 20 percent of women would like to leave, compared with 13 percent of men.

Age is an additional factor, with 30 percent of 15- to 29-year-olds wanting to get out. That number drops significantly with age to 19 percent of 30- to 49-year-olds and 8 percent of people 50 and older. Furthermore, those with lower incomes were more inclined to say they’d like to leave, too.

So where would all the expats go? Canada is one option. Following the 2016 election, that was a common fantasy for the disillusioned and angry, and by 2018, more than 1 in 4 Americans indicated a desire to go to Canada, Gallup stats show. That’s more than double the number who named Canada as an ideal destination in 2016.

But that’s not to say a mass migration would actually occur. As Gallup noted, “people’s desire to migrate is typically much higher than their intention to do so as such, it is unlikely that Americans will be flocking to the Canadian border.”

The organization added that since Trump’s election, there has been “only a modest uptick” seen among Americans moving to Canada, according to Canadian data.