INTERNATIONAL 
MIGRANT POPULATION

(STOCKS)




At mid-year 2024

SourceUN DESA, 2025.

.

1 in 27

people in the world were international migrants

304 million

people worldwide were international migrants

48 %

of the all international migrants were female



Trends


According to the UN, the estimated number of international migrants was 304 million in 2024. This figure is up from 275 million in 2020. Despite the increase in absolute numbers, the share of international migrants in relation to the world’s population has remained relatively stable over the years, standing at 3.7 per cent, only 0.8 per cent higher than in 1990 when DESA began collecting their estimates.

SourceUN DESA, 2025


While the number of female migrants has steadily increased over the past decades to 146 million in 2024, the share of female migrants stayed relatively consistent at 48.08% at mid-year 2024 (47.97% in 2020).

The share of females in the migrant population varied regionally, with the lowest in Asia (42%), and the highest in Europe (52%). By region: Northern America (51%), Oceania (51%), Latin America and the Caribbean (50%), Africa (47%).

SourceUN DESA, 2025

Visit the Portal's thematic page on Gender and migration for more data and trends by sex or gender.

At mid-year 2024, more than half of all international migrants (53%) migrated within their same region of origin (based on the regional groupings below) 

SourceUN DESA, 2025

Africa hosted 29.2 million international migrants at mid-year 2024, compared to 25.3 million at mid-year 2020 (+15%).  

At mid-year 2024, 86 per cent of all international migrants in Africa originated from the same region [by subregion: Eastern Africa (34%), Western Africa (28%), Middle Africa (13%), Northern Africa (10%), Southern Africa (1%)], followed by Asia (4%),Europe (2%), Northern America (<1%), Latin America and the Caribbean (<1%) and Oceania (<1%).

SourceUN DESA, 2025. ​​​​​​​ 

Asia hosted 92.2 million international migrants at mid-year 2024, compared to 84.7 million at mid-year 2020 (+9%).  

At mid-year 2024, 81 per cent of all international migrants in Asia originated from the same region [by subregion: Southern Asia (36%), Western Asia (17%), South-eastern Asia (17%), Eastern Asia (9%), Central Asia (2%)], followed by Africa (7%), Europe (5%), Northern America (1%), Latin America and the Caribbean (<1%), and Oceania (<1%).

SourceUN DESA, 2025

Europe hosted 94.1 million international migrants at mid-year 2024, compared to 83 million at mid-year 2020 (+13%). 

At mid-year 2024, nearly half (48%) of all international migrants in Europe originated from the same region [by subregion: Eastern Europe (28%), Southern Europe (10%), Western Europe (6%), Northern Europe (4%)], followed by  Asia (21%), Africa (11%),  Latin America and the Caribbean (7%), Northern America (1%), and Oceania (<1%).

SourceUN DESA, 2025

Latin America and the Caribbean hosted 17.5 million international migrants at mid-year 2024, compared to 14.3 million at mid-year 2020 (+23%).

At mid-year 2024, approximately 80 per cent of all international migrants in Latin America and the Caribbean originated from the same region [by subregion: South America (65%), Caribbean (9%), Central America (7%)], followed by Northern America (7%), Europe (7%),Asia (2%), Africa (<1%) and Oceania (<1%).

SourceUN DESA, 2025

Northern America hosted 61.2 million international migrants at mid-year 2024, compared to 58.8 million at mid-year 2020 (+4%). 

At mid-year 2024, nearly half (45%) of all international migrants in Northern America originated from Latin America and the Caribbean, followed by Asia (32%), Europe (11%),Africa (4%), Northern America (2%) and Oceania (<1%).

SourceUN DESA, 2025

Oceania hosted 9.9 million international migrants at mid-year 2024, compared to 9.3 million at mid-year 2020 (+7%). 

Half (50%) of all migrants originated from Asia, followed by Europe (25%), Oceania (12%), Africa (6%), Latin America and the Caribbean (3%) and Northern America (2%).​​​​​​​

SourceUN DESA, 2025


The top five countries of origin for international migrants were India (18.5 million), China (11.7 million), Mexico (11.6 million), Ukraine (9.8 million), Russian Federation (9.1 million).  

Ukraine entered the top five following a 124 per cent increase in the number of emigrants from mid-2020 to mid-2024, the largest percentage increase among the top 10 countries of origin in that period. 

The second and third largest percentage increases were in Venezuela (+52.1%) and Afghanistan (31.4%). Mexico recorded the smallest percentage increase (+1.3%).

SourceUN DESA, 2025​​​​​​​


In absolute terms:

The top five destination countries for international migrants remained unchanged from mid-year 2020 (United States of America, Germany, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, and France). 

Increases in the total number of international migrants recorded (from 2020 to 2024) in all five countries.

The United States of America saw the largest absolute increase from 2020-2024 (+1.9 million migrants), while Saudi Arabia and France recorded the smallest increases (+0.6 million migrants each) in the same period.

Relative to the population:

Migrants as a percentage of the population varied significantly among the top ten countries of destination in 2024 (e.g. Russian Federation: 5.3%, and United Arab Emirates: 74%). 

Eight of the top ten countries saw increases in the proportion of migrants: Spain (+3.5%), Germany (1.9%), United Kingdom (1.5%), Australia (+0.8%), France (+0.7%), Canada (+0.3%), United States of America (+0.3%), and Russian Federation (+0.3%). Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates experienced declines.  

Canada, Australia, the Russian Federation, the United Arab Emirates, and Spain consistently ranked among the top 10 countries of destination for international migrants between 2015 and 2024; however, their rankings have shifted over time.

SourceUN DESA, 2025




Who is an international migrant?






An international migrant is defined as “any person who changes his or her country of usual residence” (UN DESA, 1998).

Migrant stocks are defined as “the total number of international migrants present in a given country at a particular point in time” (UN SD, 2017: 9).





About the data



International migrant stocks are estimates of "the total number of international migrants present in a given country at a particular point in time" (UN SD, 2017: 9). United Nations (UN) data on these stocks are based mostly on the country’s population that is born abroad, and (where this information is not available) on holding a foreign citizenship (UN DESA 2020a: 5UN SD, 2017). 

Migrant stocks vs. flows: Data on migrant stocks are often reported together with data on migrant flows. Although both terms account for the number of migrants, what they measure is different. Migrant flows data account for the number of migrants entering or leaving during a specified time period (usually one calendar year) (UN SD, 2017).

Definition "International migrant": To improve statistics, the UN produced recommendations in 1998 to define an international migrant as "any person who changes his or her country of usual residence" (UN DESA, 1998), distinguishing between "short-term migrants" – those who change their country of usual residence for at least three months but less than a year – and "long-term migrants" – those who do so for at least one year. However, not all countries have adopted such a definition. Some countries may use different criteria to identify international migrants for statistical purposes, such as a different minimum duration of stay in the country. 

Various sources collect and disseminate migrant stock data at the national and international levels.

National statistical offices collect data on migrant stocks through censuses, population registries or administrative sources.

The UN Statistics Division (UNSD) is mandated to collect official migration statistics, including on migrant stocks, from countries through the Demographic Yearbook data collection system.

UN DESA provides global estimates of international migrant stocks based on national statistics on country of birth, and, where data on the foreign-born were not collected in national censuses, based on country of citizenship (UN DESA 2020a: 5; UN SD, 2017). The principal data sources are population and housing censuses, supplemented by population registers, nationally-representative survey and administrative data. These global data are also disaggregated by sex, and were, until 2020, by age. Full reassessment was conducted for 2024 for 60 countries with new data from censuses or population registers, significant numbers of international migrants, notable refugee flows as documented by UNHCR. For the remaining countries, estimates were extrapolated from the 2020 dataset using nowcasting techniques. 

The Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) has a similar task for EU Member States. Some governments also report stock data to other international organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). 

The World Development Indicators database by the World Bank also contains datasets on total international migrant stock and international migrant stock as a percentage of the total population among other global development datasets, which are retrieved from officially recognized international data sources. Data on international migrant stock are available for every five years since 1960 with the latest update in 2015.

Estimates of migrant stock from UN DESA are available for 233 UN countries/areas and comprise the most geographically comprehensive information on international migration. Among the countries and areas included, 87% had at least one data source on total number of international migrants residing in the territory since 2010, 71% had data disaggregated by sex, 76% had data on the origin of migrants. 

The comparison of national statistics on international migration is difficult at a global level. Countries use different concepts and definitions – some simply use country of birth or nationality to define a migrant. The timing of census data also varies from country to country. Many countries conduct new censuses only every 10 years or so, which means the data can be outdated. UN DESA uses interpolation and extrapolation methodologies to estimate stocks for countries with data for two or more points in time. For those countries with only one data point available since 1990, UN DESA uses the increase in migrant stocks in the region, or area or country with a similar profile to impute/estimate stocks in a certain year ((UN DESA, 2020c). There are also several reasons why the number of migrants may be under reported in population censuses. For example, new residents with irregular status are less likely to be included in the censuses (see UN SD, 2017GMG, 2017).



By Kenneth S. Reyes

Data Visualization Specialist at IOM's Global Data Institute


Four Ways to Visualize Migrant Populations

12 February 2025

The United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) has recently released the much-anticipated new edition of their global migrant population estimates. This rich dataset had provided stock values of the migrant population for each country at five-year intervals from 1990 to 2020, disaggregated by sex and country of origin. The latest release adds 2024.

How have the global patterns of migration changed over time? Here are four compelling ways to visualize the data.



The humble line chart is the classic way to show how a variable has evolved over time. Shading the area under it results in an area chart; moreover, segmenting the area into different colors shows the makeup of the aggregate. In the chart above, not only can one see that the global migrant population has reached an all-time peak of 304 million in 2024, it is also easy to glean the split between male and female.

​​​​​​​


When comparing an indicator across countries, it is oftentimes rankings rather than actual values that yield the greatest insights. In the example above, country rankings over four years are charted as text boxes with a line connecting the boxes of the same country across those years, thereby highlighting how rankings have changed (or not) over time. For added clarity, each country is assigned its own color. An extra touch is the subtle ordinal annotations on the left and right.



​​​​​​​For cross-country comparisons, there is nothing more eye-catching than a map. Suppose one is posed with the question of where immigrants from India have settled. A bar chart or pie chart each have their strengths, but a choropleth map as in the above would provide the clearest geographic sense of migrant destinations. This is especially effective when the countries with the largest values are also physically large, making their colors easy to see. With choropleths, care must be taken when scaling to achieve a pleasing gradualness to the gradient. In this example, the scale is logarithmic rather than linear. 



While a scatterplot can be intimidating to look at, it is often the best approach to examining the relationship between two continuous variables. In the example above, the growth rate of a country's immigrant population between 2020 and 2024 is compared to the growth rate of its general population over the same period. It is quickly apparent that most countries lie in the upper-right quadrant, corresponding to positive growth for both immigrant and general populations. One can go deeper and identify six areas ("sextants") in the plot, labeled I to VI above, depending on whether populations grew or contracted and whether one population grew faster than the other. For instance, India is in sextant IV, which contains countries whose general population grew but whose immigrant population fell. Which sextants have the greatest and fewest members? Why is this the case? These are some of the interesting questions one can raise with a scatterplot.

Try a scatterplot if the audience is on the more data-savvy side. A few tricks can also help make it as readable as possible. Highlight key dots by labeling them. Add transparency to the dots to make overlaps visible. Make sure the ranges of the x and y values are fairly similar; apply logarithmic transformations if needed. Exclude outliers.






Resources

Key mobility figures from IOM GMDAC, including:

  • International migrants
  • Female migrants
  • Child migrants
  • Youth & migration
  • Labour migrants
  • Remittances
  • Missing migrants
  • Trafficking
  • Refugees and asylum-seekers
  • Resettlement
  • Internal displacement

Learn more about individual indicators on a national and regional level on the dashboard.

United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs Statistical Division (UN SD)

2017

Handbook on Measuring International Migration through Population Censuses. Background document. Statistical Commission, Forty-eighth session 7-10 March 2017, Item 4(a) of the provisional agenda, Demographic Statistics. UN, New York. 

United Nations

1998

Recommendations on Statistics of International Migration, Revision 1, Statistical Papers, Series M, No.58, Rev.1. Sales No. E.98.XVII.14.

Bilsborrow, R., G. Hugo, A. Oberai, and H. Zlotnik

1997

International migration statistics: guidelines for improving data collection systems, International Labour Office, Geneva.

Global Migration Group (GMG)

2017

Handbook for Improving the Production and Use of Migration Data for Development. KNOMAD, World Bank, Washington, D.C.

United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)

2024

International Migrant Stock | Population division


Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

2016

Stocks of foreign-born population in OECD countries. OECD, Paris.