A record share of young American women now say they would like to leave the United States for good, according to a new Gallup survey released Thursday, underscoring a growing cultural and political divide that has reshaped the nation’s social landscape.
Gallup found that 40 percent of women aged 15 to 44 say they would move to another country permanently if they could—a number more than double the 19 percent of men in the same age group who said the same. The figure represents the widest gender gap Gallup has ever recorded on the question.
The desire to leave the U.S. has been building for more than a decade, but Gallup’s data show that the steepest increases began in 2016, the final year of former President Barack Obama’s administration. At that time, just 17 percent of young women said they wanted to emigrate.
Since then, that share has climbed steadily through both the Trump and Biden presidencies, suggesting that the discontent transcends partisan politics.
Between 2024 and 2025, Gallup recorded notable increases among both married and unmarried women: 41 percent of married women and 45 percent of unmarried women said they wanted to live abroad, compared with 22 percent and 38 percent the year before. The growing sense of alienation among younger women appears to cut across traditional demographic categories such as marital status or motherhood.
Older women are also showing signs of shifting attitudes. Fourteen percent of women over 45 told Gallup they would consider leaving the country, compared with 8 percent of men in that age group. That marks a reversal from 2024, when 14 percent of older men and just 6 percent of older women expressed such a desire.
The political dimension of this divide was evident in the Nov. 4 elections, where young women overwhelmingly supported Democratic candidates across the country. NBC News exit polls showed that 81 percent of women under 45 voted for Virginia Democrat Abigail Spanberger, 81 percent backed Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey, and 84 percent supported Zohran Mamdani in New York City. Among young men, support for those same Democrats was notably lower—58 percent for Spanberger, 57 percent for Sherrill, and 67 percent for Mamdani.
Gallup’s broader data suggest that the gender gap in political affiliation has become a defining feature of American life. Nearly 60 percent of young women identify as or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared with just 39 percent of men.
At the same time, trust in the country’s key institutions has fallen sharply—especially among younger women. Gallup reported that since 2015, women under 45 have registered the steepest decline of any demographic group in confidence in the government, courts, military, and elections, dropping a full 17 percentage points overall.
Trust in the judiciary collapsed in particular after the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, falling from 55 percent to 32 percent.
While Gallup did not draw conclusions about what drives the exodus sentiment, the data highlight a paradox: even as younger women dominate political activism and voter participation for Democrats, they express unprecedented disillusionment with the country itself.
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