A few things happened between 1990 and 2023. Neighboring countries began requiring passports. Cruises became economical and had rules of their flagship sponsors requiring them to port at more than one country, business became global with a highly paid professional class representing their companies. The data do not separate leisure travel, largely voluntary, from business sponsored international travel. In my own medical world, many of my professional meetings have become international ones. So the rise in passports would be expected, even universal for the millions of Americans who live near our northern and southern borders.
Cruise ships seem to span all religions. Corporate hiring does as well, though the engineering and financial jobs requiring formal education that leads to international assignments does not distribute uniformly.
Indeed, cruises are going to significantly inflate the tally of countries one has traveled to. If I go on a single Caribbean cruise, I could easily get to five separate countries, even if I never traveled again.
And similarly, I got my first passport in 2006. I needed to to travel to a business conference.
This is GREAT data and I echo the comments about mission type things.
One thing - the headline felt a little confusing for me. Given the current state of things here, I read it as people leaving the US as in moving out of the country because of the political situation rather than just traveling. Just an FYI
I guess this data doesn't really show any kind of spike in the kinds of missionary safaris that are common among middle- and upper-middle-class White Evangelicals. My first flight was 15 hours to Buenos Aires for one of those with a choir.
Travel supposedly broadens one’s understanding of the world. While it’s interesting to ask about foreign travel given the increase in Americans with passports, perhaps it’s more revealing to ask about where people are & have been in their lives with respect to their birth place, county, state or region. About 20 years ago, I was at a management gathering for my government organization with a couple of hundred managers, line through executive.
We had an icebreaker where the ballroom represented the US & we gathered at approximate locations showing where we were born, graduated high school, college, held our 1st job, our current job, & expected retirement.
Many never left one part of the ballroom, a few were all over the place.
Those questions might be just as interesting as foreign travel.
Given the interest in religion, perhaps a question for those identifying as Christian might respond differently to a question about visiting Israel & the Holy Land in particular rather than other foreign localities.
As a young person, our foreign travel opportunities were pretty limited, mostly involving military service which meant probably Vietnam.
A factor that would explain the greater propensity of Catholics and "other" (a group which includes Muslims, Hindus, and LDS) to travel are the commandments of that religion, or at least what is culturally desirable given the history and doctrines of the religion.
If I'm a faithful Muslim and can possibly afford it, I must make a Hajj pilgrimage at least once in my life. This is a religious obligation. So if I was born in Topeka I'm still going to make every effort to get to Mecca at some point, even if all my family lives in the United States. Add to this the fact that many American Muslims (as well as other members of "other" religions, like Hinduism and Sihkism) are first- or second-generation immigrants with family overseas, and you have a multiple reasons why adherents of "other" religions would travel outside the United States.
Another "other" religion is the Church of Latter-Day Saints. Sure, this is a thoroughly homegrown American religion, so you wouldn't expect much overseas family effect. But there is a religious obligation for all young men to do a mission away from home--and, often, in another country--for 2 - 3 years. Increasingly, young women are also choosing to go on missions. So if I'm a Mormon guy living in Salt Lake, there's still a good chance that I traveled outside the United States at least once, for my obligatory mission.
As you note, many American Catholics are Hispanic, and thus may have the factor of visiting family who live in other countries as a motive for traveling, as I've argued many American Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs do. But also, Catholicism encourages travel to holy sites. While not an obligation as Muslims have for Hajj, pilgrimage to the Vatican or sites of miracles like Lourdes is a devout activity for Catholics. Similarly, while pilgrimage to temples is not obligatory for Hindus, it is certainly an encouraged, devout activity.
So I think this is a case where a partial answer to the question "why do members of religion X do a thing?" is "because the religion tells them to do that thing."
A few things happened between 1990 and 2023. Neighboring countries began requiring passports. Cruises became economical and had rules of their flagship sponsors requiring them to port at more than one country, business became global with a highly paid professional class representing their companies. The data do not separate leisure travel, largely voluntary, from business sponsored international travel. In my own medical world, many of my professional meetings have become international ones. So the rise in passports would be expected, even universal for the millions of Americans who live near our northern and southern borders.
Cruise ships seem to span all religions. Corporate hiring does as well, though the engineering and financial jobs requiring formal education that leads to international assignments does not distribute uniformly.
Indeed, cruises are going to significantly inflate the tally of countries one has traveled to. If I go on a single Caribbean cruise, I could easily get to five separate countries, even if I never traveled again.
And similarly, I got my first passport in 2006. I needed to to travel to a business conference.
This is GREAT data and I echo the comments about mission type things.
One thing - the headline felt a little confusing for me. Given the current state of things here, I read it as people leaving the US as in moving out of the country because of the political situation rather than just traveling. Just an FYI
I guess this data doesn't really show any kind of spike in the kinds of missionary safaris that are common among middle- and upper-middle-class White Evangelicals. My first flight was 15 hours to Buenos Aires for one of those with a choir.
Travel supposedly broadens one’s understanding of the world. While it’s interesting to ask about foreign travel given the increase in Americans with passports, perhaps it’s more revealing to ask about where people are & have been in their lives with respect to their birth place, county, state or region. About 20 years ago, I was at a management gathering for my government organization with a couple of hundred managers, line through executive.
We had an icebreaker where the ballroom represented the US & we gathered at approximate locations showing where we were born, graduated high school, college, held our 1st job, our current job, & expected retirement.
Many never left one part of the ballroom, a few were all over the place.
Those questions might be just as interesting as foreign travel.
Given the interest in religion, perhaps a question for those identifying as Christian might respond differently to a question about visiting Israel & the Holy Land in particular rather than other foreign localities.
As a young person, our foreign travel opportunities were pretty limited, mostly involving military service which meant probably Vietnam.
A factor that would explain the greater propensity of Catholics and "other" (a group which includes Muslims, Hindus, and LDS) to travel are the commandments of that religion, or at least what is culturally desirable given the history and doctrines of the religion.
If I'm a faithful Muslim and can possibly afford it, I must make a Hajj pilgrimage at least once in my life. This is a religious obligation. So if I was born in Topeka I'm still going to make every effort to get to Mecca at some point, even if all my family lives in the United States. Add to this the fact that many American Muslims (as well as other members of "other" religions, like Hinduism and Sihkism) are first- or second-generation immigrants with family overseas, and you have a multiple reasons why adherents of "other" religions would travel outside the United States.
Another "other" religion is the Church of Latter-Day Saints. Sure, this is a thoroughly homegrown American religion, so you wouldn't expect much overseas family effect. But there is a religious obligation for all young men to do a mission away from home--and, often, in another country--for 2 - 3 years. Increasingly, young women are also choosing to go on missions. So if I'm a Mormon guy living in Salt Lake, there's still a good chance that I traveled outside the United States at least once, for my obligatory mission.
As you note, many American Catholics are Hispanic, and thus may have the factor of visiting family who live in other countries as a motive for traveling, as I've argued many American Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs do. But also, Catholicism encourages travel to holy sites. While not an obligation as Muslims have for Hajj, pilgrimage to the Vatican or sites of miracles like Lourdes is a devout activity for Catholics. Similarly, while pilgrimage to temples is not obligatory for Hindus, it is certainly an encouraged, devout activity.
So I think this is a case where a partial answer to the question "why do members of religion X do a thing?" is "because the religion tells them to do that thing."