The proportion of immigrants varies considerably from one land to another. In some, it exceeds one-half the population, while in others it is below 0.ane%. Which countries have the most immigrants? Where practise they come up from? How are they distributed beyond the globe? We provide hither an overview of the number and share of immigrants in different countries around the world.

According to the Un, the United states has the highest number of immigrants (foreign-born individuals), with 48 million in 2015, five times more than in Saudi arabia (11 one thousand thousand) and 6 times more than than in Canada (seven.six million) (figure beneath). Withal, in proportion to their population size, these ii countries have significantly more than immigrants: 34% and 21%, respectively, versus 15% in the United states.

15 countries with the most immigrants in 2022

Paradigm: Gilles Pison, based on Un data

Looking at the ratio of immigrants to the total population (figure below), countries with a high proportion of immigrants can be divided into 5 groups:

- The beginning group comprises countries that are sparsely populated just accept arable oil resources, where immigrants sometimes outnumber the native-born population. In 2015, the world's highest proportions of immigrants were institute in this group: United Arab Emirates (87%), Kuwait (73%), Qatar (68%), Kingdom of saudi arabia, Bahrain, and Oman, where the proportion ranges from 34% to 51%.

- The 2d grouping consists of very pocket-sized territories, microstates, often with special taxation rules: Macao (57%), Monaco (55%), and Singapore (46%).

- The third group is made upward of nations formerly designated equally "new countries", which cover vast territories but are still sparsely populated: Australia (28%) and Canada (21%).

- The fourth group, which is similar to the third in terms of style of development, is that of Western industrial democracies, in which the proportion of immigrants generally ranges from 9% to 17%: Austria (17%), Sweden (16%), United States (15%), United Kingdom (13%), Spain (xiii%), Germany (12%), France (12%), the Netherlands (12%), Belgium (11%), and Italy (10%).

- The fifth group includes the so-called "countries of offset asylum", which receive massive flows of refugees due to conflicts in a neighbouring country. For example, at the end of 2015, more than than one 1000000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees were living in Lebanon, representing the equivalent of 20% of its population, and around 400,000 refugees from Sudan were living in Chad (3% of its population).

Proportion of immigrants in selected countries in 2019

Paradigm: Gilles Pison, based on United Nations data

Modest countries have higher proportions of immigrants

With 29% immigrants, Switzerland is alee of the Us, while the proportion in Luxembourg is fifty-fifty higher (46%). Both the attractiveness and size of the country play a office. The smaller the land, the college its probable proportion of foreign-born residents. Conversely, the larger the country, the smaller this proportion is probable to be. In 2015, Republic of india had 0.iv% of immigrants and Red china 0.07%.

However, if each Chinese province were an contained country – a dozen provinces have more than l 1000000 inhabitants, and three of them (Guangdong, Shandong, and Henan) have about 100 one thousand thousand – the proportion of immigrants would be much higher, given that migration from province to province, which has increased in scale over recent years, would be counted as international and non internal migration. Conversely, if the European Union formed a single country, the share of immigrants would subtract considerably, since citizens of one Eu country living in some other would no longer be counted. The relative calibration of the ii types of migration – internal and international – is thus strongly linked to the way the territory is divided into separate nations.

15 sending countries that have supplied highest number of migrants

Paradigm: Gilles Pison, based on United Nations data

The number of emigrants is difficult to measure

All immigrants (in-migrants) are as well emigrants (out-migrants) from their dwelling countries. Nevertheless the information bachelor for counting emigrants at the level of a item country is often of poorer quality than for the immigrants, even though, at the global level, they correspond the same ready of people. Countries are probably less concerned about counting their emigrants than their immigrants, given that the onetime, unlike the latter, are no longer residents and do not use government-funded public services or infrastructure.

However, emigrants frequently contribute substantially to the economy of their home countries past sending back money and in some cases, they still take the right to vote, which is a good reason for sending countries to rails their emigrant population more effectively. The statistical sources are another reason for the poor quality of data on emigrants. Migrant arrivals are better recorded than departures, and the number of emigrants is often estimated based on immigrant statistics in the different host countries.

The number of emigrants varies considerably from one country to another. India headed the list in 2015, with nearly 16 one thousand thousand people born in the country but living in another (run into the effigy below); Mexico comes in second with more than 12 one thousand thousand emigrants living mainly in the Usa.

Proportion of emigrants in selected countries in 2019

Image: Gilles Pison, based on United nations data

Proportionally, Bosnia and Herzegovina holds a tape: in that location is one Bosnian living abroad for 2 living in the country, which means that i-3rd of the people built-in in Bosnia and herzegovina accept emigrated (figure beneath). Albania is in a like situation, also every bit Greatcoat Verde, an insular state with few natural resources.

Some countries are both immigration and emigration countries. This is the case of the United kingdom, which had 8.iv million immigrants and 4.7 million emigrants in 2015. The United States has a considerable number of expatriates (2.9 million in 2015), but this is 17 times less in comparison to the number of immigrants (48 meg at the same date).

Until recently, some countries have been relatively closed to migration, both inward and outward. This is the example for Japan, which has few immigrants (only ane.7% of its population in 2015) and few emigrants (0.6%).

Immigrants: less than 4% of the world population

According to the United nations, at that place were 258 one thousand thousand immigrants in 2017, representing only a pocket-size minority of the globe population (3.4%); the vast bulk of people live in their country of birth. The proportion of immigrants has but slightly increased over recent decades (30 years ago, in 1990, it was 2.9%, and 55 years ago, in 1965, information technology was 2.three%). It has probably changed merely slightly in 100 years.

Only the distribution of immigrants is different than it was a century ago. Ane change is, in the words of Alfred Sauvy, the "reversal of migratory flows" between North and South, with a considerable share of international migrants at present coming from Southern countries.

The four large groups of international migrants, migrant numbers in 2017

Image: Gilles Pison, based on United nations data

Today, migrants tin can be divided into three groups of practically equal size (effigy in a higher place): migrants born in the South who live in the North (89 1000000 in 2017, according to the United nations); Southward-Due south migrants (97 1000000), who accept migrated from one Southern country to some other; and N-Due north migrants (57 meg). The quaternary grouping – those born in the North and who have migrated to the South – was dominant a century agone but is numerically much smaller today (14 1000000). Despite their large scale, especially in Europe, migrant flows generated since 2022 past conflicts in the Middle Due east accept not significantly inverse the global picture of international migration.