Mexico City – Data from the Mexican government reveals a significant increase in U.S. citizens migrating to Mexico. Compared to the first four months of 2023, twice as many Americans (625) relocated to Mexico between January and April 2024.
This trend aligns with a broader surge observed since 2019. Permanent residency permits issued to U.S. residents jumped by 69.9% between 2019 and 2022, reaching the highest level since 2013 (20,374 permits).
Most US citizens who obtained a new residence card during this period chose to live in three territories: Mexico City (3,518 people), Jalisco (3,427) and Quintana Roo (2,411). These three areas represent 48.92% of the total.
A 2023 Yahoo Finance report estimates that 1.6 million Americans currently reside in Mexico. Factors driving this migration include lower living costs, healthcare expenses, and rent, along with ample job opportunities. This southward migration mirrors the well-documented northward migration of individuals seeking better opportunities or asylum in the United States.
While Mexico has always been a popular vacation destination for Americans, tourism boomed in 2023 with 36.71 million visitors from the US traveling to Mexico. One year prior, in 2022, the number of U.S. citizens traveling to Mexico was around 33.54 million – an increase of 17% over the previous year.
Interestingly, a 2019 Washington Post report suggests that the number of U.S. residents migrating to Mexico has quadrupled since 1990. Notably, this surge includes U.S.-born children of Mexican parents who returned to their country of origin.
Mexico’s Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, acknowledged this trend in a 2019 interview, describing it as a “very important cultural phenomenon.”