No more than one-third of Americans have valid passports. I’ve created a choropleth map to illustrate the disparate distribution of traveling Americans. Further background and data here.
Not defending being incurious about the world, but when particularly snotty people from Europe say this to me (I mean people in real life, not anyone who made this post), I point out that going from London to Helsinki (crossing many borders) is about the same distance as going from New York to Kansas City (a little less than halfway across the U.S.). Until recently you didn’t need a passport to go to Canada or Mexico. This means that every American could go a thousand miles and not need a passport. Air travel is becoming easier and cheaper, but that doesn’t mean it’s free, and no a lot of people have never had the chance to vacation in Spain, etc, etc. Finger-wagging at people because they don’t have a passport makes both privileged Americans and Europeans chuckle, but remember: not everyone has it as easy as you do!
PS I know a guy from the U.K., same age as me, and I met him here in New York. It was his first time in the U.S. The trip to Heathrow was also his first time in London! He is a great guy. Ergo, your travel means nothing about whether or not I will like you.
A-fucking-men. The US is a world unto itself.
Americans should travel more though. I think one of the best things governments around the world could do to foster friendly relations is to give young Americans access to working holidays visas even if America doesn’t reciprocate. Australia does this now, and I can tell you first-hand that it changes the mindset of young Americans very rapidly.
Travel is a cure for xenophobia, and xenophobia is the root of a great deal of political ills, and a catalyst for chauvinism.
If you overlay this with a map of immigrant populations I bet they would align. Look at the states with the most Passports per capita - they all have large immigrant communities as well as a 2nd generations+ that have very strong ties to the countries from which their families came.
As an American, that’s what I see when I look at this map rather than a statement about how poorly-traveled we are.
