Migrants make up 3.6% of global population

The number of people forced to leave their countries because of conflict, persecution, natural disasters or other reasons, as well as those who moved for work or education, has more than tripled in the past 50 years.

According to the latest available estimates, there were 280.6 million global migrants - representing close to 4% of the world’s 8 billion people.

The number of people worldwide living outside their origin countries as of 2020 was at its historical high - almost quadruple the level in 1960 when this population stood at 77.1 million. In the last decade alone, nearly 60 million more people became international migrants. Much of this increase has been driven by labor or family migration. The international migrant share of the world’s population also is rising, standing at 3.6% in 2020, up from 3.2% a decade earlier, and 2.6% in 1960.

More than 52% of international migrants resided in Northern America and Europe. The Northern Africa and Western Asia region followed, with 18% of the international migrant stock.