According to the online version of the World Migration Report 2020, there were 281 million international migrants in the year 2020, making up 3.6% of the world’s population. That means about 1 in 30 people worldwide are international migrants.
The number of international migrants has been increasing over time, from 174 million in the year 2000 to 281 million in 2020 (see Table 1 below). The percentage of people who are international migrants has also been increasing over time, but quite slowly. In 2000 2.8% of the world’s population were international migrants; by 2020 that figure had increased only slightly to 3.6%. (Data for the year 2000 are from the printed version of the World Migration Report 2020. Both the printed and online versions of the World Migration Report 2020 are from the International Organization for Migration.)
As we saw in Chapter 20: How many people across the world say they want to permanently migrate? over 750 million people around the world who are currently not international migrants want to be permanent international migrants, and more than that want to be at least temporary migrants. The fact that the number of people who want to be international migrants is so much larger than the actual number of international migrants is an indication that immigration restrictions do indeed “work”, in the sense that they severely restrict migration.
| Year | International migrants (millions) | International migrants (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 174 | 2.8 |
| 2005 | 192 | 2.9 |
| 2010 | 221 | 3.2 |
| 2015 | 249 | 3.4 |
| 2020 | 281 | 3.6 |
Sources: World Migration Report 2020 (for the years 2000 – 2015) and the online version of the World Migration Report 2020 (for the year 2020)
Questions
- How many international migrants are there in the world?
- What percentage of the world’s population are international migrants?
- How are the number and percentage of international migrants changing over time?
- How does the number of international migrants in the world compare with the number of people in the world who are not international migrants but want to be?