Migration globe
The connections between countries made by the people who live outside the country they come from. Choose a country to see where its people live abroad, or where the migrants living there come from.
In mid-2024, 304 million international migrants lived in the world, by the UN estimate.
UN International Migrant Stock 2024, migrants at mid-2024, both sexes.
- Mexico → United States11.3M
- Afghanistan → Iran3.8M
- Syria → Türkiye3.6M
- Russia → Ukraine3.4M
- India → United Arab Emirates3.2M
- India → United States3.2M
- Venezuela → Colombia2.9M
- Ukraine → Russia2.9M
- China → Hong Kong2.5M
- China → United States2.5M
See the numbers
| From | To | People |
|---|---|---|
| Mexico | United States | 11,279,561 |
| Afghanistan | Iran | 3,752,317 |
| Syria | Türkiye | 3,563,983 |
| Russia | Ukraine | 3,375,095 |
| India | United Arab Emirates | 3,248,545 |
| India | United States | 3,165,238 |
| Venezuela | Colombia | 2,904,873 |
| Ukraine | Russia | 2,872,612 |
| China | Hong Kong | 2,490,414 |
| China | United States | 2,488,775 |
How to use this tool
- 1Choose a country, and whether to see its people abroad or the migrants living there.
- 2Hover or tap an arc to read its number, tap again to pin it and see both directions.
- 3Change the reference year, the number of connections shown, or show shares instead of counts.
How it works
The numbers are migrant stocks from the UN International Migrant Stock 2024: the people living outside their country of origin at mid-year, for eight reference years from 1990 to 2024. They are not journeys, and nothing on the globe moves along an arc.
An arc’s width grows with the square root of the number of people, relative to the largest connection shown, and its label gives the exact number. Highlighting changes the colour, never the width.
Shares are of the selected country’s total: all its people living abroad (the UN world total for that country of origin), or all the international migrants living there. The denominator is written next to every share.
Migrants of unknown origin and people in areas without a country page are listed in the table on their own rows, never drawn as arcs and never counted as zero.
Frequently asked questions
Does the globe show people moving?
No. Each arc is the number of people from one country living in another at mid-year. How many moved in a given year is a different measure, a flow, which this source does not give.
Why do some countries count citizens instead of people born abroad?
Most countries count migrants by country of birth, some by citizenship. The UN keeps each country’s basis, and the globe shows it next to the numbers, because the two give different totals.
Why is there no year after 2024?
The UN publishes migrant stocks for reference years up to 2024 and no projections. The globe only offers years that have data.
