How many Americans live in Europe?

Question

Would be great if anyone has these statistics by country. Just curious!

Answer 1

Follow this official link for the numbers by country

Answer 2

I don't know the figures, but after what Alan Cowell just wrote, I want to say that I was in London in 2000 and while at the Tower of London the guide made a comment about Mr. Bush being elected will help America on certain issues. I interrupted him and said that Bush would not be elected as it was 3 months before the election. He stood proudly and said "If you people don't elect him, the world will lose a great man". :(
I guess he just wanted the TEA tax back:(

Answer 3

Americans in Europe: Politics Aside
By ALAN COWELL
A few months ago, European hoteliers, restaurateurs, tour operators and souvenir sellers were starting to hope that, after the fears caused by Sept. 11, Americans were beginning to venture back to Europe in large numbers.

What a difference a war makes, even one so far from the Champs-Élysées and the Brandenburg Gate as the Iraq campaign is.

As the first missiles were fired and bombs were dropped on Baghdad, tourism officials across Europe acknowledged that the anticipation of war in the months leading to the outbreak of hostilities, along with a deepening fear of terrorism, had persuaded many Americans to stay home.

That was not altogether surprising; after the Persian Gulf war in 1991 following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the number of American visitors to London alone, usually over two million a year, dropped by almost one-third and did not recover for three years, said Louise Wood, a spokeswoman for the London Tourist Board.

The numbers fell again after Sept. 11.

But now there seem to be subtle differences: many of those Americans who did visit Europe, interviewed March 19 and 20 in cities from Moscow to Milan to London, seemed surprisingly unfazed by a Europe that, contrary to some expectations, did not strike them as hostile, anti-American or on edge. And many European tourism officials forecast that the recovery will be quicker than the one after the 1991 war.

"I won't say people are less nervous," Ms. Wood said. "But perhaps the effects will be less devastating."

Indeed, said Hanns-Peter Nerger, general manager of Berlin Tourism Marketing: "Americans react much quicker to their subjective feelings about security than their German counterparts. But we're hoping for a short war and don't foresee any long-term effects."

France, Europe's most vocal critic of the war, seemed most troubled by the slump in American visitors. In 2002, some 1.7 million Americans visited Paris, down 12 percent from 2001, according to official figures, and the number fell even more sharply in January 2003 as conflict approached. "It's surely linked to the war," said Karine Lefebvre, a spokeswoman for the Office of Tourism and Congresses in Paris.

Among those who are visiting Europe, Americans in these chill, early-spring days seem to confront more complex emotions. Some appear uneasy with their own nationality - or at least their own government - and ponder whether they should pretend to be Canadian. But few reported overt hostility among Europeans widely opposed to the war but not, Americans said, to United States citizens.

"Everyone we're talking to is saying 'We're friends with the Americans whether we agree with their politics or not,' " said Susan Nicholson, 58, a retired public-health worker from Washington, while waiting for friends beneath the Eiffel Tower. That was on the first day of the war, and she fretted that attitudes could change as the conflict unfolded. "I'm afraid that if there's blood or killing, it will get worse," she said.

Across Europe, which is deeply divided between governments for and against the war, there is a common denominator of profound antiwar sentiment among citizens prepared to take to the boulevards and piazzas in protest. Some American visitors found themselves suddenly sharing the sidewalk with demonstrators protesting their own government's actions in Iraq.

Jerry and Judy Woods from Evanston, Ill., for instance, arrived in Milan the day before the war started and went to view Leonardo's "Last Supper" on the first day of the conflict. Mr. Woods, a 60-year-old librarian and painter, had a Canadian flag pin underneath the collar of his jacket. "It's more like a talisman," he said.

That reflected their unease in Milan as they toured its sights, including the Gothic spires of the cathedral. "Sure we're nervous," said Mrs. Woods, a 47-year-old secretary, "We were just in the square in front of the Duomo and some sort of peace vigil was taking place. We looked around, got a little close and then we walked away."

Clay Jordan, 37, a television producer who moved to Milan from Los Angeles in February, had no such worries. "I just passed a peace parade and everyone was very calm," he said. "I didn't feel any sense of danger or anger." And Erwin Schwarz, a 55-year-old lawyer from Seattle who was in Berlin for a gathering of lawyers discussing the International Criminal Court, said that "people here seem to distinguish between Americans and the American government."

That is just as well, since some American visitors seemed to bridle at being associated with a conflict undertaken in their name despite their opposition.

"I hate to have to apologize because I'm American," said Crystal Sumner, 19, a sophomore at Texas Tech University who was visiting Paris during a break from study in Granada, Spain. She thought about pretending she was Canadian, but wanted people to know that not all Americans support the war.

But few can escape the feeling that, compared with the months after Sept. 11, when America's plight inspired a tidal wave of sympathy in many parts of the world, now there's far less support.

"We're putting out an ugly face to the world," said Carol May, 56, a teacher from Williamson, N.Y., in Milan on the way to Switzerland with her husband. Two weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, the couple traveled to Australia wearing red, white and blue ribbons on their coats and "at that time everyone absolutely embraced us," said her husband, Jim, also 56. "This time we didn't bring anything that said U.S.A. It's very different."

And, it seemed, there was no way to avoid talk of war. In Madrid, Thea Williamson, a student from Haverford College in Pennsylvania, who was visiting the Prado, said that many people wanted to talk about the invasion. "Definitely they want to talk about politics, and what I think of what the government is doing, because it's clear they understand the difference between American tourists or students and the political system," she said.

But there was some caution. Ms. Williamson and her friends don't go to the antiwar protests, she said, even though they don't agree with the war, "because it's not a safe environment." And Kyle Cunniff, an industrial-design student from Brooklyn visiting Spain, said: "Some people feel hostile but that's probably because they don't understand that what I feel is not the same as my government. But nothing really bad has happened, just people saying 'I don't want to talk to you because you're American.' " As he spoke in Madrid's Puerta del Sol, thousands of Spanish students mounted a noisy antiwar demonstration.

Of course, this is not the busiest time for American tourists anyhow, with chill winds scouring the broad avenues of Berlin, and Red Square in Moscow deep in its low season of cold, dirt and slush. In Moscow, the American Embassy urged caution in a public statement: "The Department of State advises American citizens in Russia to take prudent steps to ensure their personal safety in the coming days." That warning, though, seemed to heighten a sense among some Americans in Moscow that the perils had been overstated. Mike Serazio, 22, of Tucson was one of a group of students from the Columbia University School of Journalism on the way from Moscow to Kazan, the capital of heavily Islamic Tatarstan. He said that he was not fearful, but he acknowledged "Maybe we're trying to speak more quietly on the street."

While in Moscow the students also met with Muslim leaders. "The Muslims here are vehemently opposed to the war, but they made it clear that they understand that the actions of our government are not how we feel personally," said Tim Lavin, 22, of Massapequa Park, N.Y.

Some Americans seemed just plain stoical about it all. "I used to come to London when buildings were blowing up left and right because of the I.R.A.," said Dallas Myers, 53, a travel agent from Bakersfield, Calif.. He and a colleague, Victoria Lee, 59, had just dropped off 65 American tourists at the Tower of London. "You can die on a freeway on the way to the airport in Los Angeles," he said. "You have to live your life by probabilities. Something's going to kill you, but probably not terrorism."