Why more young US women appear ready to move abroad

Aubrey and her wife are preparing to leave the United States for Costa Rica in January – a decision they haven’t taken lightly, after building a life as homeowners in upstate New York.

She says months of unease about the political climate in the United States – from debates over LGBT rights to concerns about basic safety – finally tipped them into making a plan to leave.

Her story could be far from unique, according to a recent survey by US analytics firm Gallup, which suggests 40% of American women aged 15 to 44 would move abroad if they had the opportunity.

These figures only reflect aspirations rather than intentions. But they appear to highlight a trend that Gallup says began more than a decade ago, of a growing number of younger American women reassessing where they see their futures.

Julie Ray, the firm’s managing editor for world news, acknowledges that these are “not flight plans”, and that “the group of people who actually take steps to move abroad is far smaller than the much larger group who say they’d like to”.

Gallup says the figures suggest a story nonetheless. The rise has also created the largest gender gap in migration aspirations that the company has ever recorded. Only 19% of younger men saying they want to leave the US compared with the 40% of women.

Although Aubrey’s own decision to actually go ahead and leave the US crystallised in the last few months, under the second Trump presidency, the trend of women considering leaving the US has been steadily growing for many years – starting at the end of the Obama administration, according to Gallup.

Pressures have been building on women from the left and the right, suggests Nadia E Brown, professor of government and chair of the women’s and gender studies at Georgetown University.

“It’s not just partisan politics,” says Prof Brown. “Women feel caught between expectations from both sides – traditional roles promoted by conservatives, and the pressures of progressive working life. Neither path guarantees autonomy or dignity, and that leaves women considering alternatives like moving abroad.”

Economic reasons in the US like student loans, the rising cost of healthcare and the cost of home ownership are also factors in shaping young women’s decisions to forge a life in another country, Prof Brown adds. Outside the Gallop data, a recent survey from the Harris Poll- a US market research firm – suggested 40% of Americans have considered moving abroad, with many citing lower living costs as their main reason. The largest demographic groups thinking of moving were Gen Z and Millennials.

Other analysts say these numbers should be read as a snapshot of frustration rather than a forecast of real-world migration.

Clifford Young, president of US Public Affairs at another polling firm, Ipsos, does not believe that the numbers reflect a trend of women actually emigrating from the US, and says the Gallup number reflects “dissatisfaction with the present political environment rather than any real intention to leave the United States”.

“We’re not going to see a mass outflow of women from the US. That simply won’t happen,” he says.

‘I wanted a different pace of life’

Kaitlin, 31, who moved from the US to Portugal four years ago, felt compelled to ditch her day job to explore a new life somewhere else.

“I was working a 9-to-5 in Los Angeles, and every day felt exactly the same,” she reflects. “There’s not a strong work-life balance in the US. I wanted to live somewhere with a different pace, different cultures, and learn a new language.”

She now lives in Lisbon, works remotely as a freelancer, and says the lower cost of living and strong social culture have made her feel “more like a whole person again”.

“I can’t imagine ever going back to the US”, she says.

Despite the non-political nature of decisions made by people like Kaitlin, a clear political divide emerged in 2017, with those who disapproved of the first Trump presidency far more likely to want to leave, according to the Gallup data, which was based on 1,000 interviews.

Trump is now back in the White House. The number of young women expressing an interest in leaving actually fell this year compared with former president Joe Biden’s final year in office – but the gender gap has now reached its widest level.

Some social-media commentators have criticised the women who told Gallup they would consider leaving – or downplayed the findings of the research. “These poll results sicken me,” wrote one fathers’ rights advocate, while a conservative commentator claimed the trend reflected “personal attitudes rather than systemic issues.”

‘Women’s rights were being stripped away in real time’

For Alyssa, a 34-year-old mother who moved from the US to Uruguay earlier this year, the decision to leave wasn’t just about lifestyle – it was a response to political and social pressures that felt immediate and personal.

She first began seriously thinking about leaving three years ago, after the US Supreme Court overturned the Roe v Wade ruling – which ended the constitutional right to abortion in the US. But she didn’t make the move until early 2025.

“I have children and I don’t plan on having more, but the increasing governance of women’s bodies terrified me. I felt like women’s rights were being stripped away in real time,” she explains.

As a Latina, she felt unsafe because of rhetoric around immigration in the US, even as a US citizen. “I genuinely feared being detained in front of my kids,” she says.

One platform, Expatsi, that helps Americans to plan relocations and explorations of new countries has also highlighted the importance of the women’s rights issue. The platform’s co-founder Jen Barnett says its internal data “shows a clear gender trend”.

“Our clientele has always been two-thirds or more women, but our first big bump in traffic came after Roe v Wade was overturned,” Ms Barnett adds.

But – as with Kaitlin’s more to Portugal – there were important pull factors as well as push factors for Alyssa.

She says she chose Uruguay not just as an escape from Florida but for politics and culture and things she didn’t think she could replicate simply by moving to a blue state in the US.

“We’ve always wanted to live in Latin America, partly so our kids could grow up with that cultural and language foundation,” she says.

Confidence in major US institutions drops

Another related issue on which a gender divide appears to have widened is the matter of Americans’ trust in institutions, including the Supreme Court.

This has also sunk to historic lows, according to data from Gallup. Just 26% of Americans say they trust the presidency, 14% trust Congress and fewer than half express confidence in the court.

But the decline has been especially precipitous among young women.

Their scores have fallen by 17 points since 2015 – the sharpest decline of any demographic. Confidence dropped during both the Trump and Biden administrations.

According to Ms Ray, from Gallup, there is a link between this falling trust and the other trends. “That drop sits right alongside rising interest in leaving the country.”

Some women who gave their individual experiences to the BBC are also weighing practical concerns like healthcare, and climate – factors that can tip the balance when considering a move abroad.

Marina plans to leave the US next May with her boyfriend, also in favour of Portugal. “Healthcare not being a human right in this country is a huge part of why we’re leaving,” she says.

“We also want to live somewhere where gun violence is unlikely,” she adds, citing a decades-old issue in America. “In Portugal it’s much harder to get a gun – that alone makes life feel safer.”

For Marina and her boyfriend, the challenges at home have made the decision to leave the US more urgent – including the nightmare of his house flooding during increasingly extreme weather, another issue that has intensified in recent decades.

“We’re tired of the climate here – it’s become unbearably hot, and it feels like there’s a natural disaster every year now.”

‘Not just a US problem’

Mr Young from Ipsos reiterates that we should not read too much into the reported statistical trends.

“While a sample of 1,000 can show clear directional sentiment,” he says, “it’s much harder to make claims about actual behaviour. You can say this cohort is dissatisfied, but you can’t say they’re about to leave based on Gallup’s data.”

Gallup also suggests that younger American women were previously less likely than those in other advanced economies to see their futures abroad – a trend that has reversed since the late 2000s and early 2010s.

On this point, Prof Brown says it “isn’t just a US problem”.

“Women in many countries are navigating similar challenges. The US just happens to be one where these pressures are particularly visible and acute,” she says.

Access to subsidies for childcare and healthcare, which are more common in Europe, can impact an American woman’s decision to move abroad.

“People don’t realise how far behind the US is on maternal care, parental leave, and healthcare,” Alyssa says, “until they leave the country.”

By BBC News