Top Statistics on Global Migration and Migrants

This report reviews worldwide migration trends. According to the author, the movement of people across international borders is “as old as the creation of borders.” However, in recent times, due to improvements in transportation and technology, the number of migrants worldwide has grown considerably. The migrant share of the world’s population – now almost 4% of the world’s population (or 280.6 million people) – grew from 3.2% in 2010, and 2.6% in 1960. Migrants tend to favor high-income countries. Indeed, 52% of international migrants resided in North America or Europe. With 5% of the world’s population, the U.S. has attracted 18 percent of all migrants, making it the top migrant destination. However, the U.S. doesn’t even crack the top 25 countries in terms of migrants as a percentage of total population. The report also includes statistics on top sending countries, the number of migrant workers, humanitarian migrants, migrant women and children, and migrant remittances. In addition, there are links to many other sources of data on international migration.

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