Ask most people to guess which state sends the most international travelers abroad each year, and the answer usually comes back the same way: California, because it has the most people. That answer isn’t wrong, but it misses the more interesting story hiding underneath the raw numbers. When researchers strip out population size and measure how often residents actually leave the country relative to how many people live there, an entirely different set of states rises to the top.
The data comes from two federal sources, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Survey of International Air Travelers and the National Travel and Tourism Office’s outbound travel monitor, both of which track where American travelers going overseas actually live.
The States Sending the Most Travelers Abroad, by Sheer Volume
Measured simply by total numbers, the picture is dominated by population size. In 2024, the states producing the most outbound international travelers were California, with 7.7 million overseas trips, followed by New York at 6 million, Florida at 5.3 million, Texas at 3.7 million, and New Jersey at 3.1 million. Together those five states account for a substantial share of every American passport getting stamped overseas in a given year.
Why Raw Numbers Tell Only Half the Story
Here is where the picture flips. A separate analysis using the same federal data, adjusted for population, found that residents of New York and New Jersey travel overseas at roughly twice the national average rate. Nationally, Americans take about 146 overseas trips per 1,000 residents each year, which works out to the average person leaving the country once every six to seven years. New Yorkers blew past that pace, logging 301 overseas trips per 1,000 residents, while New Jersey residents weren’t far behind at 291 per 1,000.
That distinction matters enormously. It means a resident of New Jersey, a state with a fraction of California’s population, is statistically far more likely to be boarding an international flight in any given year than a resident of California is. Florida, Connecticut, and Virginia rounded out the next tier of states with the highest per-resident travel rates, suggesting that dense, coastal, well-connected states produce disproportionately more frequent travelers than their population alone would predict.
The States Barely Leaving the Country at All
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Idaho recorded international travel rates roughly one-third of the national average or lower. The pattern lines up with geography and international airport access as much as anything else. States without a major international gateway airport within easy reach tend to produce far fewer frequent overseas travelers, regardless of income or population.
What’s Actually Driving the Difference
Coastal states with major international airports and large immigrant populations tend to dominate both lists, and it isn’t a coincidence. Visiting friends and relatives abroad accounted for more than a quarter of all outbound trips in 2024, and states with dense immigrant communities naturally generate a steady stream of return visits to family overseas, in addition to standard vacation travel. Vacation and holiday travel still made up the largest single share of trips, at 61 percent, but the friends-and-family factor helps explain why states like New York and New Jersey outpace larger, wealthier states on a per-resident basis.
A Note on the Full Rankings
Beyond the five states confirmed at the top of the volume rankings and the handful with the highest per-capita rates, the federal government’s complete state-by-state breakdown, covering the full ranking of all 50 states, is available through NTTO’s U.S. States and Cities Visited Monitor and its outbound Survey of International Air Travelers data tool.
What This Means for Fellow Travelers
For anyone who considers frequent international travel part of their identity, this data offers a strange kind of validation. Living in a well-connected, coastal state with strong international air links does more to shape how often someone actually leaves the country than income or even overall wealth. It also suggests that America’s most seasoned travelers are not necessarily clustered where the population is largest, but where the airports, the family ties abroad, and the travel culture happen to overlap.
This article draws on data from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Travel and Tourism Office, including its Survey of International Air Travelers and U.S. States and Cities Visited Monitor, along with analysis from Daily Drop.
Amanda O’Brien is the creator and editor of The Boutique Adventurer. She has visited 80 countries and is a member of the British Guild of Travel Writers as well as the IFTWTA. She is passionate about wine had has just completed Level 3 of the WSET. Born in Australia, she lives in London.