Surprising nation Americans want to flee to

Some Americans were so upset over Donald Trump’s landslide victory that they considered upping sticks and moving on to pastures new.

Some Americans were so upset over Donald Trump’s landslide victory that they considered upping sticks and moving on to pastures new.

Just like with his first presidential win in 2016, there was a notable spike in interest from Americans exploring the possibility of moving to other countries, with Canada being a popular option. The Canadian immigration website even experienced temporary outages due to the surge in traffic.

However, some are looking further afield this time around. One nation on the other side of the world has seen a major search spike on its immigration site

Famed for its sheep, furry fruit, Lord of the Rings-esque landscape and rugby, some 18,000 Americans seriously considered the move to New Zealand.

Immigration NZ website data showed the number of United States people looking into living and working in New Zealand hit 18,632 on Thursday, the day after Mr Trump defeated Kamala Harris to become president.

Two days earlier, with the US polls neck-and-neck, that number was 691.

Over 18,000 Americans were looking at moving to New Zealand after the election result. Picture: Jim Watson / AFP

By Wednesday, November 6 – the day that Mr Trump defied the polls with his red wave – it hit 7511.

However, we saw a similar trend in 2016 and not many Americans put their money where their mouths were.

Stars like Lena Dunham, Amy Schumer, and Chelsea Handler were among those who mentioned the possibility of relocating if Mr Trump won back then.

It prompted an online discussion among Americans about the possibility of relocating, with New Zealand mentioned as a desirable destination due to its natural beauty and reputation for political stability.

However, in the 12 months following the 2016 result there were 19,727 visa applications from the United States. Of those, only 1347 were for resident visas.

It would be unfair to compare this to visa applications to New Zealand after Joe Biden’s win because heavy Covid travel restrictions were in place. But if you compare it to Barack Obama’s win in 2012, the reaction to Mr Trump’s win looks even more ordinary.

New Zealand’s natural beauty is a major drawcard.

In 2013, there were 16,966 US visa applications for New Zealand, 1065 were for resident visas.

Basically only 282 more Americans relocated to New Zealand after Mr Trump’s win than after Mr Obama’s win. Even in a nation with a minuscule population of 5.2 million, it can hardly be called an exodus.

Despite this, many Americans are still entertaining the possibility of moving, in their minds at least.

Stuff this week reported that Google searches for moving to New Zealand also spiked on election day. There was an even bigger spike when Mr Trump claimed the presidency.

Google data showed the biggest interest was from Washington, Oregon, Maine, New Mexico and Idaho.

However history shows us that, when push comes to shove, Americans will be more than likely to stay right where they are.