Bye-bye, Uncle Sam: This is where Americans go when they renounce their citizenship
A US government official with the State Department’s Passport Services reaches for a new blank US passport with an embedded electronic chip to begin the process of entering personal data and the photograph of an applicant.
The United States is still the top destination for immigrants, but plenty of its citizens are leaving too.
Nearly 3,000 Americans ditched their passports and renounced their citizenship last year, new government figures show.
That's three times higher than the average of the past five years.
Here are the top destinations for US-born emigrants, according to figures from the Pew Research Center. The stats below refer to the number of known Americans residing in each country as of 2010.
Also, please note: the analysis relied on classifications from the United Nations, and the UN considers Puerto Rico a territory separate from the US.
1. Mexico (510,000 US emigrants)
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2. Canada (310,000)
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3. Puerto Rico (210,000)
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4. United Kingdom (190,000)
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5. Germany (120,000)
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6. Israel (90,000)
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7. Australia (70,000)
(Daniel Kalisz AFP/Getty Images)