Summary
- China spends the most money on international travel annually, more than any other country.
- China has the highest number of outbound travelers each year, followed by the US and India.
- Contrary to expectations, Swedish residents have the most international travel experience, with half of respondents visiting at least 10 countries.
Americans, as a whole, seem to travel often, but it turns out we aren’t the most prolific adventurers on the planet, even if our travel bucket lists are chock-full. When it comes to international travel, we don’t rank too highly, even though there are some affordable international destinations you can reasonably reach from NYC. Other countries seem to travel far more than people from the United States, to the point where US travel seems statistically insignificant in some ways.
To determine who travels the most, we’ve compared outbound travel data from Statista, international travel expenditures for different countries, and surveys from Pew Research. Read on to find out which country spends the most money on international travel, who has the most travelers in the world, and which countries are the most well-traveled by way of diverse trips.
China Spends The Most Money Traveling Each Year
Photo by Henry Chen on Unsplash
Beijing after Dark
What better way to determine which country is the most traveled internationally than to figure out who spends more money on international travel? China has a staggering spending record when it comes to traveling the world, easily surpassing every other country that made it onto the board.
Per Statista, Chinese travelers spent $196.5 billion dollars on outbound trips in 2023. Given China’s size — a population of over 1.412 billion people — that figure is not entirely astonishing.
After all, China has often held the record for the highest population of any country in the world, followed closely (and sometimes surpassed) by India (currently over 1.417 billion people, per World Bank and the United States Census Bureau) and the United States (squeaking onto the leader board with over 333.3 million people).
Neither India nor the US spent as much money on travel as China in 2023.
The United States and Germany were the runners-up, which isn’t terribly surprising for the US. After all, we know how expensive international flights can be, given the vastness of the US. Germany might be the more surprising expenditure, given how many countries are near to its borders.
China spends the most money traveling each year, but it also has the most outbound travel per year by sheer volume.
China Has The Most Outbound Travelers Per Year
Shutterstock
Airplane flying in the air
In addition to spending the most money on outbound travel each year, China also has the highest number of outbound travelers each year. Again, because China is one of the largest countries on the planet, this makes sense.
However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that China is the most well-traveled — as in, having travelers visiting the most destinations. More on that later.
For comparison, the US had 98.46 million outbound tourists in 2023. While figures did drop during 2019 and 2020, the US’ travel trends didn’t recover as fast as China’s. India only had 21.09 million departures in 2022 (Statista data was not available for 2023).
American flights do have the most passengers
If we get down to the nitty-gritty of counting airline passengers, there is something of note to consider: In 2021, the United States had the most airline passengers counted, with more than 666 million — perhaps unsurprising given that the busiest airport in the world is in the US. China had over 440 million, but wasn’t a super-close runner-up.
However, a caveat applies here; those travelers are not necessarily US citizens or residents.
Travelers From Sweden Have The Most International Travel Experience
Wikimedia Commons
Aerial view of Fjäderholmarna, Sweden
Despite what the numbers seem to indicate, Pew Research found in a survey that the countries with the most international travel experience were not China, the US, or India. In fact, respondents who live in Sweden had the most international travel experience, with more than half of those surveyed saying they had traveled to at least 10 countries.
|
Country |
Travel Trend |
|---|---|
|
Sweden |
57% of residents have traveled to 10+ countries |
|
Netherlands |
48% of residents have traveled to 10+ countries |
|
UK |
43% of residents have traveled to 10+ countries |
|
Germany |
36% of residents have traveled to 10+ countries |
|
Australia |
32% of residents have traveled to 10+ countries |
Of course, traveling to the most places doesn’t mean that people in Sweden have traveled the most out of any country, but it is an eye-opening comparison — especially as Sweden is one of the happiest countries in the world. For reference, only 11% of respondents from the US said they had visited 10+ countries.
Interestingly, Sweden, Australia, and Germany are also some of the most friendly countries to travel to.
Does Finland Take the Most Trips of Any Country?
Various sources claim that the people of Finland take the most trips abroad per year, but based on our research, that’s not accurate. According to Statista, in 2023, Finnish residents took a collective 7.28 million trips abroad. Given Finland’s population of over 5.6 million people, that averages out to less than two trips per year per person.
Finland also did not rank in either most money spent on international travel or the highest number of trips per country.
References: Economic Intelligence Unit, Worldometer, US Census Bureau, World Bank
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