How many Americans lost citizenship through denaturalization versus expatriation since 2005?
Executive summary
Available reporting does not provide a single official tally comparing how many Americans lost U.S. citizenship through denaturalization versus expatriation since 2005; government summaries and secondary accounts discuss trends, policy changes and historical totals but do not publish a straightforward post-2005 split (not found in current reporting). Contemporary sources document a spike in voluntary expatriations in the 2010s (roughly thousands per year by mid‑decade) and a long‑standing but numerically small record of denaturalizations with periodic surges tied to enforcement priorities (DOJ/USCIS memos and reporting) [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Two different mechanisms, two different data problems
Denaturalization (courts revoke naturalized citizenship) and expatriation/relinquishment (individuals give up citizenship or perform acts construed to relinquish it) are recorded by different agencies and under different legal frameworks; DHS/State Department yearbooks and USCIS/DOJ materials are the sources for parts of each record, but no single compiled public dataset in the provided sources answers the post‑2005 comparative count directly [3] [1]. Available sources describe trends and agency priorities but do not publish a consolidated count comparing the two since 2005 (not found in current reporting).
2. Expatriation: clear rise in voluntary renunciations through the 2010s
Multiple sources note that voluntary relinquishments/renunciations rose substantially between 2005 and the mid‑2010s: Wikipedia’s summary of State Department statistics reports that from 2014–2016 an average of about 5,000 U.S. citizens gave up citizenship annually and that numbers “rose by nearly ten times between 2005 and 2015,” reflecting thousands per year by mid‑decade [1]. That indicates aggregate expatriations since 2005 likely number in the tens of thousands, but the exact year‑by‑year totals and a post‑2016 time series are not supplied in the provided sources [1].
3. Denaturalization: historically rare but subject to enforcement surges
Denaturalization historically involved small numbers. One legal analysis and news compilations show the government has pursued denaturalization in relatively few cases over long periods, though activity increased in some recent administrations: official reporting cited by immigration groups and news outlets puts DOJ’s filings at 228 denaturalization cases since 2008, with about 40% filed since 2017 — a concentration that signals a policy shift rather than mass numbers like expatriation [2]. Other background pieces stress denaturalization’s legal difficulty and historically small annual case counts [5] [6].
4. Recent enforcement push complicates trend interpretation
A June 2025 DOJ memo directed prioritization of denaturalization in “all cases permitted by law and supported by the evidence,” and news reporting shows at least individual denaturalization orders occurred in 2025; these memos and new DOJ/USCIS units explain why denaturalization filings rose in recent years but do not translate into a simple cumulative total since 2005 in the cited reporting [3] [4] [2]. That means any contemporary comparison must separate administrative intent and referrals from final denaturalization judgments recorded by courts [3].
5. Historical context shows different scales and political uses
Historians and scholars emphasize that denaturalization and expatriation have been used in waves; Patrick Weil’s historical counts show tens of thousands of cancellations/expatriations across the 20th century, underscoring that the tools have political and administrative uses beyond individual cases [7] [8]. Contemporary sources warn of potential political motives behind targeted denaturalizations while also documenting voluntary expatriation driven by tax, personal and political reasons [2] [1].
6. What the available sources allow — and what they don’t
From the provided material you can conclude: (a) expatriations/renunciations rose substantially between 2005 and 2015 to several thousand per year [1]; (b) denaturalization remains numerically much smaller though it surged in filings and attention after 2017 and received formal DOJ prioritization in 2025 [2] [3] [4]. What you cannot obtain from these sources is a single verified numeric comparison — an official count of “Americans who lost citizenship by denaturalization versus expatriation since 2005” is not published in the cited reporting (not found in current reporting).
7. How to get a definitive answer
To produce a precise post‑2005 split you would need: year‑by‑year State Department/DHS statistics on relinquishments and renunciations (expatriation forms), plus consolidated court records or DOJ/USCIS summaries of final denaturalization judgments since 2005. The CRS brief and news reporting identify the relevant agencies (State, DHS, DOJ, USCIS) and document trends, but they do not provide the single compiled table required for a definitive numeric comparison [3] [2] [1].
Limitations: This account uses only the provided sources; government yearbooks and court records likely contain the raw numbers but are not reproduced here.