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Spoiler alert... Some migration-map fans may want to visit the Interactive Migration Map itself before reading this post and the next one....

      Top 10 South American Countries in U.S. ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs
               Starting With the Fewest Such ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs

#10 ... Paraguay ... 2,000 U.S. ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs

#9  ... Uruguay ... 3,000

#8  ... Bolivia ... 6,000

#7  ... Argentina ... 6,000

#6  ... Venezuela ... 9,000

#5 ... Chile ... 10,000

#4  ... Peru ... 11,000

#3  ... Colombia ...18,000

#2  ... Brazil ... 24,000


And the #1 South American country by number of U.S. ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs ...

     #1  ... Ecuador ... 39,000


Source:  United Nations as expressed on the
   Interactive Immigration Map

Top Central American countries: 
   Costa Rica 13K, Panama 12K

cccmedia in Quito

cccmedia wrote:

Spoiler alert... Some migration-map fans may want to visit the Interactive Migration Map itself before reading this post and the next one....

      Top 10 South American Countries in U.S. ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs
               Starting With the Fewest Such ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs

#10 ... Paraguay ... 2,000 U.S. ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs
#9  ... Uruguay ...    3,000
#8  ... Bolivia ...       6,000
#7  ... Argentina ...  6,000
#6  ... Venezuela ... 9,000
#5 ...  Chile ...        10,000
#4  ... Peru ...         11,000
#3  ... Colombia ... 18,000
#2  ... Brazil ...        24,000
#1  ... Ecuador      39,000

Did you see any surprises in these numbers?

At least for those of us who live in Ecuador, it's not surprising to see that this country is #1 in South America in U.S. ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ population.

Brazil is a big place and Rio is world-famous as a lively city, but the language is Portuguese and the country has crime problems.  Advantage, Ecuador.

These, to me, are the surprises...

-- More U.S. ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs live in land-locked, infrastructure-challenged Bolivia than in Uruguay with its world-class beaches.  Cost-of-living comparison may explain this.

  -- Venezuela and Chile have each attracted more U.S. ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs than Argentina.  ARG has had economic issues, to say the least, but compared to VEN's myriad problems!  Come on!

cccmedia in Quito

U.S. ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs in other countries, by the numbers...

Living in....

Canada ... 317,000

United Kingdom ... 222,000

Puerto Rico ... 189,000 (U.S. territory)

Germany ... 111,000

Australia ... 90,000

Israel ... 80,000

Japan ... 60,000

China ... 43,000

The Philippines ... 36,000 (3,000 fewer than in Ecuador)

Saudi Arabia ... 36,000

Spain ... 35,000

South Africa ... 17,000

The numbers are surprising, especially since Cuenca, with 5,000 USA expats, is considered THE spot for many.  I am surprised that there are 34,000 US expats living in non-Cuenca spots.  39,000 is certainly a larger percentage of the total population of 13,000,000 in Ecuador than the 36,000 expats in the Philippines in a population of about 100,000,000.  In any event, .3% of the population is still a very small percentage, hard to blame expats for any economic changes.

What about the number of native Ecuadorians who are now ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs in other countries?

The Migration Map shows that two countries, above all, account for the overwhelming majority of such EC ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs -- the United States and Spain....

     Highest Number of ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs Originally From Ecuador
                     Now Living Elsewhere

1.  United States      473,000 Ecuadorians

2.  Spain                  451,000 Ecuadorians

3.  Italy                      92,000

4.  Venezuela           30,000

5.  Chile                    22,000

6.  Canada               16,000

7.  Colombia             14,000

8.  Switzerland           5,000

9.  United Kingdom    5,000

10. France/Germany  4,000 each

Highest Number of ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs Originally From Ecuador
                     Now Living Elsewhere

1.  United States      473,000 Ecuadorians
2.  Spain                  451,000 Ecuadorians
3.  Italy                      92,000
4.  Venezuela           30,000
5.  Chile                    22,000
6.  Canada               16,000
7.  Colombia             14,000
8.  Switzerland           5,000
9.  United Kingdom    5,000
10. France/Germany  4,000 each

What are the surprises from the map concerning Ecuadorians living in other countries ...

Who knew that Chile has 22 times as many such EC ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs as its neighbor, Argentina?  What accounts for this?

30,000 Ecuadorians in Venezuela?  With all of VEN's problems, that number has to be on the wane.  Welcome back home, Ecuadorians.

92,000 Ecuadorians in Italy ... is it the great food maybe?  What else could be such an attraction to a country where Italian is the dominant language?

Low numbers -- Mexico is home to only 3,000 Ecuadorians as ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs ... Panama 2K ... Brazil 2K ... Costa Rica only 1,000.

cccmedia in Quito

Strange and surprising numbers for sure.

All this discussion of where and why people move made me think of these "definitions":

Heaven and Hell

Heaven Is Where:

The French are the chefs
The Italians are the lovers
The British are the police
The Germans are the mechanics
And the Swiss make everything run on time

Hell is Where:

The British are the chefs
The Swiss are the lovers
The French are the mechanics
The Italians make everything run on time
And the Germans are the police

mugtech wrote:

The numbers are surprising, especially since Cuenca, with 5,000 USA expats, is considered THE spot for many.  I am surprised that there are 34,000 US expats living in non-Cuenca spots.

I consider it extremely unlikely that Cuenca still has only 5,000 USA ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs, or anywhere close to that number.

That number goes back over 3-and-a-half years at least, to January 2012, when The Economist quoted "diplomats" in Ecuador as saying there were 5,000 such.

Even that was over a year before Diane Sawyer and John Quiñones of ABC News introduced the USA to Cuenca on ABC World News Tonight.

Cuenca's popularity as one of the world's top ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ destinations has only become greater year after year since those 2012 and 2013 reports, pumped up in part by International Living's ongoing boosterism and the various news services that pick up and unquestioningly give IL's reporting even wider coverage.

If Cuenca's population has grown 15-18 percent since early 2012 -- and such percentages seem reasonable -- there could be close to double the 5K figure, say 10,000 now in EC's third largest city.

Quito is widely considered to have a much smaller percentage of ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs than Cuenca in comparing their respective populations.  But the capital has seven times the population of Cuenca -- plus its suburbs have been growing -- so 10,000 ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs spread around Quito is also a reasonable guestimate.

Vilcabamba has a relatively small population, but the USA ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ population may be the highest in Ecuador by percentage, so there could be a cóuple thousand there as well.

Guayaquil probably has a much smaller percentage of USA ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs than any of the cities mentioned above, but it's EC's largest metropolis.  So a couple thousand USA ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs could have landed there temporarily before figuring out that GYE is not ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ-friendly.

And let's not forget the caliente EC Coast, which could be rivaling all the other top places as a top hot-spot for ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵs, at least by percentages.

cccmedia in Quito

cccmedia wrote:

Vilcabamba has a relatively small population, but the USA ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ population may be the highest in Ecuador by percentage, so there could be a cóuple thousand there as well.

From a simple forum-reader's perspective, I'm imagining Vilcbamaba as having a disproportionate number of religious missionaries trying to recruit folks to their non-Catholic brand of Christianity.

cccmedia wrote:

If Cuenca's population has grown 15-18 percent since early 2012 -- and such percentages seem reasonable -- there could be close to double the 5K figure, say 10,000 now in EC's third largest city.

Clarification... Mathematicians in our readership will want to know that these percentages for Cuenca, since early 2012, were meant to be a credible annual range-of-increase.  The possibly doubled population since 2012 was partly based on mathematical compounding.

cccmedia in Quito

I don't believe those numbers.  The general estimate is 4000 to 6000 expats in Cuenca, which is considered the highest concentration of expats.  If that is the case, how could there be 39,000 in Ecuador -- 10 times the number in Cuenca?

If they had said 10,000 to 15,000, I think it would have more credence, and even then I expect the lower of this range is more likely.

Hi everybody,

Some off topic posts have been removed from this thread.

Please avoid religious debates here, this is not allowed !

Thanks,

Priscilla

SawMan wrote:

cccmedia wrote:

Vilcabamba has a relatively small population, but the USA ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ population may be the highest in Ecuador by percentage, so there could be a cóuple thousand there as well.

From a simple forum-reader's perspective, I'm imagining Vilcbamaba as having a disproportionate number of religious missionaries trying to recruit folks to their non-Catholic brand of Christianity.

Evidently Loja is more inclined to this.