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🇺🇸 Migration in the United States: where do people move to and from?

Updated June 2026 · ~4 min read

The United States is the world's single largest destination for immigrants - and also has a smaller, widely spread diaspora. Here's where Americans emigrate to and where the US's immigrants come from, using official figures from the US Census Bureau, the Migration Policy Institute and UN DESA.

47.8M
Foreign-born residents in the US
3.0M
Americans living abroad (diaspora)

Where do Americans move to?

Top destinations by number of Americans living there:

1
🇲🇽Mexico
823,502
2
🇨🇦Canada
256,571
3
🇬🇧United Kingdom
243,570
4
🇩🇪Germany
152,501
5
🇦🇺Australia
114,202
6
🇮🇱Israel
97,258
7
🇪🇸Spain
68,613
8
🇯🇵Japan
62,509
9
🇫🇷France
60,000
10
🇮🇹Italy
55,000

Where do the US's immigrants come from?

Top countries of origin for immigrants living in the US:

1
🇲🇽Mexico
11,000,000
2
🇮🇳India
3,200,000
3
🇨🇳China
3,000,000
4
🇵🇭Philippines
2,100,000
5
🇨🇺Cuba
1,700,000
6
🇸🇻El Salvador
1,600,000
7
🇬🇹Guatemala
1,400,000
8
🇩🇴Dominican Republic
1,400,000
9
🇨🇴Colombia
1,200,000
10
🇭🇳Honduras
1,100,000
The United States is by far the world's largest destination for international migrants, hosting roughly 51 million in 2020 - about 18% of all international migrants worldwide.Source: UN DESA, International Migration 2020 Highlights
In 2023 the US foreign-born population reached a record ~47.8 million (14.3% of the total population), the largest share ever recorded in the American Community Survey.Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 American Community Survey
About half of all US immigrants were born in Latin America, and Mexico alone is the birthplace of roughly 11 million US residents - about 22% of the entire foreign-born population.Source: Migration Policy Institute / U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023
Thinking of moving to or from the United States? Compare it with 17 other countries on spending power, safety, climate and time off →

Sources

U.S. Census Bureau - American Community Survey 2023 (via Migration Policy Institute). UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024 (US-born abroad; State Department citizen estimates run higher).

Note: inbound and outbound figures are drawn from different official datasets and measured in different ways (e.g. foreign-born residents vs. citizens registered abroad), so the two directions are not strictly symmetric.