How Many People Live Off-Grid in the US?

July 3, 2026

More Americans and Canadians are evaluating rural land for off-grid and homestead living than at any point in recent decades. If you’re one of them, here’s what the numbers actually show, what the movement looks like up close, and what to think about before you start looking at specific properties.

Yes, real people are doing this

The figures that circulate most commonly (somewhere between 180,000 and 250,000 Americans living fully off-grid) come from solar industry sources and advocacy groups rather than government data. There is no official count, because no government agency tracks off-grid living and there is no standard definition of what it means. The 180,000 figure traces back to Home Power Magazine circa 2013. The 250,000 figure has been repeated across enough solar kit companies and real estate blogs that it now reads like fact. Treat both as rough estimates, not research.

What is harder to argue with is the direction. According to the USDA Economic Research Service, migration added 974,379 people to rural counties between 2020 and 2024, the first sustained rural population growth after nearly a decade of decline. That growth was driven entirely by people choosing to move to rural areas, not by births.

Searches for “off-grid living” have grown more than 200% in recent years, and searches for “off-grid living winter” by over 1,500%, according to published search trend analysis. One energy industry study projected that 12% of US households will be off-grid by 2035, though that projection comes from a source with a commercial interest in the number being high, so treat it as directional rather than precise.

The honest version: nobody knows exactly how many people live off-grid. But the trend is clearly moving one way, and the underlying drivers are not going away.

You’re not early to this, and you’re not alone in wanting it.

Off-grid vs homesteading: which one are you actually pursuing?

These terms get used interchangeably but they describe different priorities, and knowing which one you’re chasing changes what you actually need in land.

Off-grid is primarily about utility independence. The goal is disconnecting from public electricity, water, and waste systems and replacing them with your own. You can technically live off-grid on a suburban lot if you have solar panels, a well, and a septic system. Location matters less than infrastructure.

Homesteading is primarily about food production and self-sufficiency. A homesteader is growing food, raising animals, preserving harvests, and building practical skills around living from the land. You can homestead while still connected to the grid, though most serious homesteaders end up pursuing some degree of utility independence too.

Most people searching this question are pursuing both: they want rural land that supports food production, generates its own power, and doesn’t depend on municipal systems. That combination is what GoOffGrid.tools scores across six dimensions for any US parcel.

If you’re still figuring out which version fits your life, the answer usually lives in this question: is the draw the land and what you can grow on it, or is it the independence from systems you no longer trust?

Both are legitimate. They just point toward different priorities when you’re evaluating a specific property.

Why the number is growing and what’s driving it

The trend data is more credible than the count. A few things are clearly happening.

Energy costs and grid reliability have made utility independence feel less idealistic and more practical. The cost of solar systems has fallen significantly over the past decade, making what was once a $60,000 installation considerably more accessible. Residential battery storage installations surged 64% in 2024 compared to the prior year.

The pandemic made supply chain vulnerability visible to a much broader audience. People who had never thought seriously about food independence started thinking about it in 2020 and haven’t stopped.

Remote work removed the geographic constraint that kept most people in cities. The USDA Economic Research Service attributes the sharp reversal in rural migration patterns directly to the increase in remote work following the pandemic, with rural net migration rates rising to 0.47% in 2020-21 from near zero the year before.

And a generation of people who watched industrial food systems, utility companies, and financial institutions fail them in various ways decided they’d rather not depend on those systems if they didn’t have to.

What most people don’t realize until later

The gap between wanting this and making it work is real, and it’s almost never about motivation. The people whose plans fall apart usually made one of a handful of predictable mistakes early on.

They bought land without understanding whether it could actually support the life they were planning. Water rights that turned out to belong to someone else. Zoning that didn’t permit what they intended to build. A well that yields 1 GPM when a working homestead needs 3 to 5. Solar potential that looks good on paper and underperforms in winter.

None of that is abstract. It’s specific, checkable information that’s available in public records before you make an offer. Most buyers just don’t know where to look or what to look for.

When you get to the point of evaluating a specific property, GoOffGrid.tools scores it across six dimensions from public government data in about a minute. Most people aren’t there yet when they find this post. But it’s worth knowing the tool exists when you are.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know if a specific property can support off-grid living?

Check six things before you visit: water access and rights, legal access and zoning, energy potential, natural hazard exposure, food production potential, and buildability. Most of the answers are in free public records. GoOffGrid.tools pulls all six together for any US parcel in about a minute. Free score at GoOffGrid.tools.