Europeans are supercilious about things like the fraction of Americans who never traveled outside the US or don’t have a passport. They imagine themselves to be, by contrast, worldly, well-traveled, knowledgeable and of course, cultured.

Stats:

The fraction of Europeans who have never left Europe is estimated be 40-50% (around 20-30% in the richer Scandies, UK, Switzerland and well over 50% in the poorer Eastern parts) – estimated from travel data from pubmed, Pew Rsearch, and the European Commission (EC)

According to the EC, in 2024, only 7.8% of EU residents’ overnight trips went outside the EU, and that figure actually overstates travel outside Europe because the largest “non-EU” destinations include the UK, Switzerland and Türkiye.

The fraction of US adults who have never left the US is just 23%, smaller than the European number.

Ah, but you can’t compare a country to a continent, you wail. The right comparison is with the fraction of Americans who have never left North America, you say.

Mais non!

The US is a much larger place than all of Europe. It’s more diverse by topography than Europe is. And while it’s culturally less diverse, do not let the use of just 2 main languages mask the cultural diversity.

Don’t rely on the cultural diversity argument too hard. India, though one country, is a far more culturally and linguistically diverse place than Europe, for example. An Indian crossing a national border cannot be compared with a Dutch person going to Belgium. Almost all of Southern Sweden uses the Copenhagen airport in Denmark as the local airport just as people around Lake Tahoe in California use the Reno airport in Nevada or people in Western Massachessetts use the Bradley airport in Connecticut. This situation is to be found in many parts of Europe. Crossing an international border within Europe is simply not a big deal usually.

So, the chances of Americans venturing outside their home area (the US) are higher than Europeans venturing outside theirs (Europe).