Origins and Destinations of the World’s Migrants

May 17, 2016
Origins and Destinations of the World’s Migrants
1990-2015
Blogger's Note: This map needs to get up-dated to show the last two years of migration caused by U.S. wars in Africa and the Middle East

In 2015, 46,630,000 people living in the United States were born in other countries. Migration works two ways - in the same year comparable numbers of people born in the U.S. migrated out from their birth origin to destinations in other parts of the world.
Source: Pew Global
The figures in this interactive feature refer to the total number (or cumulative “stocks”) of migrants living around the world as of 1990, 2000, 2010 or 2015 rather than to the annual rate of migration (or current “flows”) in a given year.

Please select a country on the map

In 2015, 46,630,000 people born in the United States were living in other countries

Source: United Nations Population Division.

Since migrants have both an origin and a destination, international migrants can be viewed from two directions – as an emigrant (leaving an origin country) or as an immigrant (entering a destination country).
According to the United Nations Population Division, an international migrant is someone who has been living for one year or longer in a country other than the one in which he or she was born.
This means that many foreign workers and international students are counted as migrants. Additionally, the UN considers refugees and, in some cases, their descendants (such as Palestinians born in refugee camps outside of the Palestinian territories) to be international migrants.
For the purposes of this interactive feature, estimates of the number of unauthorized immigrants living in various countries also are included in the total counts.
On the other hand, tourists, foreign-aid workers, temporary workers employed abroad for less than a year and overseas military personnel typically are not counted as migrants.