US election 2024: ‘Move to New Zealand’ trending on Google following Trump’s win

US President-elect Donald Trump has claimed what he calls a “magnificent victory” over incumbent US Vice-President Kamala Harris in the US presidential election, eight years after his first term as president.

As world leaders congratulate Trump on his win, Americans across the country are either mourning or celebrating the results – and some even appear to be considering leaving the country.

“Move to New Zealand” is trending on Google Search, with Google Trends data showing interest from US internet users spiked on election night, November 6.

Most of these searches came from US citizens living in Oregon on the West Coast, followed by those living in Vermont, Hawaii, Colorado and Montana.

The top five most popular related search queries included, “Immigrate to New Zealand”, “New Zealand immigration”, “How can I move to New Zealand”, “How to move to Canada from US”, and “New Zealand citizenship”.

These were followed by searches like “Can an American move to New Zealand” and “Cost of living in New Zealand”.

Google Trends searches are ranked between 0 and 100, with 0 meaning not enough data and 100 indicating peak popularity. At 9.08pm on November 6, search interest in “Move to New Zealand” sat at 100.

Meanwhile, others have taken to social media to share their desire to leave the US following the election results, with one writing, “Any good places you can recommend I move to in NZ? LOL”.

One Kiwi wrote on social media platform X, “For the US homies. Feel free to move to NZ. I got spare beds, a warm place and plenty of help.”

Another shared a link to the New Zealand Immigration website, simply writing, “Just leaving this here for the real ones”, alongside an American flag emoji.

Search interest in moving from the US to Australia has also risen, according to the search engine – with most searches coming from the state of Maine, followed by Washington, Colorado and Oregon.

Donald Trump has claimed victory in the US election, flanked by wife Melania and son Barron. Photo / AFP

Searchers queried, “Is it hard to move to Australia”, “How to immigrate to Australia”, and “Moving to Australia from USA”.

It’s reminiscent of the 2020 US election, when many Americans took to Google following the first “chaotic” debate between then-candidate Joe Biden and Trump.

According to Google Trends data at the time, there was a substantial rise in the search “how to move to New Zealand” just 20 minutes into the debate. The Herald reported in 2020 that more than 250,000 Americans had looked into moving to New Zealand since the start of the Covid pandemic.

Annual net migration fell in 2020 due to border and travel restrictions – but between June 2022 and June 2023, 5,874 Americans made the move to New Zealand, according to Stats NZ.

In 2016, “Move to New Zealand” began to trend on Google as Trump drew closer to victory for the first time – as did the search terms “terrifying” and “New Zealand real estate”.