Why Mexico is the most popular destination for Americans moving abroad
Mexico has quietly become the most popular destination for Americans moving abroad. Here’s why expats are happy with their financial situations after moving south of the border.
A new blog post from HireAHelper looks at how many Americans — both those moving because of remote work, and those who have other reasons for a change of scenery — have moved to several popular countries last year. There were 15 countries in the analysis, selected using UN international migrant stock data and Google searches.
HireAHelper found based on residence permit and visa data that a large number of Americans were moving to nearby country Mexico, relative to the other 14 countries part of the analysis.
The United Kingdom and Canada, like Mexico, saw over 10,000 Americans moving to these countries last year. Almost 15,000 Americans moved to the United Kingdom and almost 12,00 Americans moved to Canada.
Mexico was named the best country for expats in a 2022 report from InterNations. Although Mexico’s economy has yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels, the country is home to the second-largest economy in Latin America. It ranked second in the personal finance index in the InterNations report.
InterNations wrote that not only is the country second in its personal finance index but “more than three-quarters of expats (77%) are happy with their financial situation (vs. 60% globally). It might help that they are also satisfied with the general cost of living (2nd) and the affordability of housing (4th).”
InterNations wrote that this index includes people’s “satisfaction with the financial situation, general cost of living, and whether a respondent’s disposable household income is enough to lead a comfortable life” and that the places on the list had at least 50 respondents.
But while InterNations report shows people are content with the cost of living overall relative to other places, Mexico’s year-over-year inflation rate in August was 8.7%, slightly higher than the elevated rate in the US and higher than the year-over-year rate in July.
According to purchasing power parities data available on The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Mexico’s purchasing power parity is 10.04 peso per US dollar, meaning that a dollar should buy what 10 pesos buys. But the current market exchange rate is approximately 20 pesos per USD, meaning that a dollar buys twice as much in Mexico as it does in the US.
The house price-to-income ratio for Mexico is smaller than the ratio for the US. For remote workers who earn a high salary in the US moving to Mexico, they may benefit from the real estate market. The national median home price is 881,000 pesos ($43,761) as of June.
While the influx of expats has helped to stimulate Mexico’s economy, it’s also created a few challenges for locals. As developers build more homes, restaurants and hotels for migrators, they have altered biological ecosystems. In Tulum, a popular destination for expats, new construction has led to the devastation of mangrove trees. Without the natural filtration system, the contamination created by visitors has given way to heightened levels of pollution.
