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Migration is arguably the most
politically important topic in many
of the developed countries in the
world. Scenes of refugees risking their
lives crossing the Mediterranean as
they seek asylum in Europe from the
Middle East and Africa are common
features on our television news stories.
Similar stories happening in Asia
where The United Nations Refugee
Agency estimates there are 3.5m
people seeking asylum largely from
Afghanistan and Myanmar. Economic
migration into Europe, and within
Europe, across Asia and into the
United States is an even bigger factor,
and driving some of the political
shocks of 2016, notably Brexit and the
election of Donald Trump.
The number of people living outside
of their home country in 2015 due to
economic migration was 243m people
(3.3% of the world’s population), whilst
refugees accounted for less than
20m. In 2015, two-thirds (67%) of all
international migrants were living in
just 20 countries. The largest number
of international migrants (47m) resides
in The United States of America,
equal to about a fifth (19%) of the
world’s total. Germany and the Russian
Federation host the second and third
largest numbers of migrants worldwide
(12m each), followed by Saudi Arabia
(10m) and The United Kingdom (nearly
nine million).
International migrant stock at mid-year
2010
2015
Change Between
(2010-2015)
World
221,714,243
243,700,236
9.9%
Developed regions
132,560,325
140,481,955
6.0%
Developing regions
89,153,918
103,218,281
15.8%
Africa
16,840,014
20,649,557
22.6%
Asia
65,914,319
75,081,125
13.9%
Europe
72,374,755
76,145,954
5.2%
Latin America and the
Caribbean
8,238,795
9,233,989
12.1%
Central America
1,749,940
2,040,151
16.6%
South America
5,143,123
5,826,431
13.3%
North America
51,220,996
54,488,725
6.4%
Oceania
7,125,364
8,100,886
13.7%
Table 2:
International Migration
MOVING BY THE MILLIONS
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