Washington: In a striking demographic shift during its 250th year, the United States recorded net negative migration in 2025, with more Americans leaving the country than moving in, a trend not seen since the Great Depression, according to a report by a leading financial daily.

Estimates by the Brookings Institution suggest the US saw a net loss of around 150,000 people last year, with the outflow expected to grow in 2026. In-migration dropped sharply to between 2.6 million and 2.7 million in 2025, down from nearly 6 million in 2023, the report said.

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An analysis by The Wall Street Journal across 15 countries with partial or full 2025 data found at least 180,000 Americans relocated to those destinations, a figure likely to rise as more data becomes available.

While there is no single dataset capturing the full size of the American diaspora, estimated at between four and nine million, official figures show 1.6 million Americans living in Mexico as of 2022, more than 250,000 in Canada and over 325,000 in the United Kingdom. Europe now hosts more than 1.5 million Americans.

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Portugal has seen one of the sharpest increases, with the American population rising more than 500 per cent since the Covid-19 pandemic and 36 per cent in 2024 alone. Ireland welcomed around 10,000 Americans in 2025, roughly double the previous year, while more Americans moved to Germany than Germans relocated to the US.

Relocation firms report surging demand. On a recent call hosted by Expatsi, nearly 400 Americans signed up for guidance on moving to Albania.

“Previously, the Americans leaving were super-adventurous and well-credentialed,” Expatsi founder Jen Barnett said. “Now they’re ordinary people, like me.” She added that the company’s goal is “to move one million Americans.”

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Some commentators have dubbed the trend the “Donald Dash,” as departures increased during President Donald Trump’s second term, though analysts say the shift has been building for years, driven by remote work, rising living costs and lifestyle considerations.

A White House spokesman said the US economy continues to outperform other developed nations and highlighted enforcement measures that led to 675,000 deportations and 2.2 million “self-deportations,” while also attracting wealthy foreign investors.

Requests to renounce US citizenship are also rising, with a month-long backlog reported. Applications jumped 48 per cent in 2024 and are believed to have increased further in 2025 as some Americans seek foreign passports or relief from global taxation rules.

Relocation companies say the new wave includes families and mid-career professionals. “You don’t face the prospect of your 5-year-old going into a kindergarten and doing an active shooter drill,” said Chris Ford, who moved to Berlin. “The wages are higher in the US, but the quality of life is higher in Europe.”

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European governments acknowledge the influx. “Many Americans come, and there are many love stories,” Spanish government spokeswoman Elma Saiz Delgado said. “After four glasses of wine, they stay.”

Education trends mirror the shift. International student arrivals in the US fell 17 per cent last autumn, while more Americans are enrolling in European universities. British citizenship applications reached 6,600 in the year to March 2025, and Irish passports issued to Americans rose to 31,825 in 2024 and an estimated 40,000 in 2025.

“In Albania, you can very easily right now survive on $1,000 a month,” said relocation adviser Kelly McCoy, who moved from New York state.

The last time the US experienced net emigration was in 1935, when many Americans left in search of work during the Great Depression, a rare historical parallel to the current trend.