"A lie told often enough becomes the truth." Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

One thing you will see everywhere when reading up on Mexico is the oft told lie that one million Americans have retired there. This is the bandwagon approach to promotion, e.g. get on the Mexico band wagon, one million Americans cannot be wrong. Travel guides and promotors repeat that figure constantly. Even a casual look reveals these headlines:

Nearly One Million Americans Living in Mexico

One-Million Americans in Mexico Can’t Be All Wrong

Why Are One Million Americans Moving to Mexico?

Over one million Americans living happily in Mexico

The Great Escape: Are One Million More Americans Moving to Mexico?

The problem is that it is just a big lie. The government of Mexico requires all foreigners living in Mexico, either full-time or part-time, have visas. Records of these visas are maintained and published by Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Migración(INM), which is National Immigration Institute in English.

Not only are there not one million Americans living in Mexico, there are not even one million foreigners from all nations living in Mexico. In fact, in 2009 there were 262,672 foreigners registered as living in Mexico with any form of visa, and less than 60,000 of them were Americans.