Immigrants as a share of the population

The share of residents born in a country other than the one where they live (international migrants, as defined by the UN).

Open the interactive mapslider 1990 → 2024, charts, continent comparison Cross with another indicatorscatter plot, correlations

World map: Immigrants as a share of the population, 2024 — Map 2024. Source: ONU DESA, International Migrant Stock, via Gapminder (CC BY 4.0).

In 2024, 169 countries have a value. Highest: Qatar (76.7 %), United Arab Emirates (74 %), Kuwait (67.3 %). Lowest: Cuba (0.02 %), Philippines (0.08 %), Madagascar (0.12 %). World (population-weighted average): 3.7 %. France: 13.8 % (37th of 169).

Country ranking in 2024

Rank	Country	Value
1	Qatar	76.7 %
2	United Arab Emirates	74 %
3	Kuwait	67.3 %
4	Luxembourg	51.2 %
5	Singapore	48.7 %
6	Jordan	45.7 %
7	Oman	43.2 %
8	Saudi Arabia	40.3 %
9	Malta	37 %
10	Switzerland its history →	31.1 %
11	Australia its history →	30.4 %
12	New Zealand	28.2 %
13	Brunei	25.9 %
14	Austria	25.5 %
15	Iceland	25.1 %
16	Lebanon	24.5 %
17	Ireland	23.1 %
18	Israel	22.3 %
19	Canada	22.2 %
20	Sweden its history →	21.4 %
21	Belgium	20 %
22	Germany its history →	19.8 %
23	Spain its history →	18.5 %
24	Norway	18.1 %
25	Gabon	17.7 %
26	United Kingdom	17.1 %
27	Bahamas	16.8 %
28	Belize	16.5 %
29	Netherlands its history →	16.2 %
30	United States	15.2 %
31	Cyprus	14.9 %
32	Estonia	14.9 %
33	Slovenia	14.9 %
34	Montenegro	14.4 %
35	Denmark	14.2 %
36	Greece	14.2 %
37	France its history →	13.8 %
38	Croatia	13.6 %
39	Ukraine its history →	13.4 %
40	Equatorial Guinea	13.2 %
41	Costa Rica	12.2 %
42	Libya	12.2 %
43	Latvia	11.8 %
44	Belarus	11.6 %
45	Italy	11 %
46	Djibouti	10.8 %
47	Portugal its history →	10.8 %
48	Malaysia	10.7 %
49	Panama	10.6 %
50	Serbia	10.6 %
51	Kazakhstan	10.2 %
52	Czechia	9.6 %
53	Armenia	9.2 %
54	Finland	9.2 %
55	Côte d’Ivoire	9 %
56	Gambia	8.6 %
57	North Macedonia	8.3 %
58	Suriname	8.2 %
59	Türkiye	8.1 %
60	Chile	7.8 %
61	South Sudan	7.7 %
62	Trinidad & Tobago	7.5 %
63	Hungary its history →	7.1 %
64	Bhutan	7 %
65	Dominican Republic	6.5 %
66	Guyana	6.5 %
67	Moldova	6.2 %
68	Chad	6.2 %
69	Congo - Brazzaville	6.1 %
70	Lithuania	6.1 %
71	Slovakia	5.9 %
72	Colombia	5.8 %
73	Peru	5.4 %
74	Russia	5.2 %
75	Palestine	5 %
76	Taiwan	4.9 %
77	Sudan	4.8 %
78	Uruguay	4.7 %
79	Botswana	4.6 %
80	Poland	4.5 %
81	Venezuela	4.5 %
82	Bulgaria	4.4 %
83	Thailand	4.4 %
84	Argentina its history →	4.3 %
85	Iran	4.2 %
86	Ecuador	4.1 %
87	Uganda	4.1 %
88	South Africa	4.1 %
89	Mauritania	3.8 %
90	Namibia	3.8 %
91	Rwanda	3.6 %
92	Syria	3.6 %
93	South Korea	3.5 %
94	Romania	3.5 %
95	Uzbekistan	3.2 %
96	Burkina Faso	3.1 %
97	Togo	3 %
98	Benin	2.9 %
99	Burundi	2.8 %
100	Japan	2.8 %
101	Kyrgyzstan	2.7 %
102	Eswatini	2.7 %
103	Paraguay	2.6 %
104	Tajikistan	2.6 %
105	Turkmenistan	2.6 %
106	Zimbabwe	2.6 %
107	Cameroon	2.2 %
108	Mali	2.2 %
109	Azerbaijan	2.1 %
110	Georgia	2.1 %
111	Angola	1.8 %
112	Central African Republic	1.8 %
113	Kenya	1.8 %
114	Albania	1.7 %
115	Bangladesh	1.7 %
116	Niger	1.7 %
117	Pakistan	1.7 %
118	Fiji	1.6 %
119	Ghana	1.6 %
120	Nepal	1.6 %
121	Bolivia	1.5 %
122	Senegal	1.5 %
123	Liberia	1.3 %
124	Mexico	1.3 %
125	Zambia	1.2 %
126	Bosnia & Herzegovina	1.1 %
127	Mozambique	1 %
128	Vanuatu	1 %
129	Congo - Kinshasa	0.99 %
130	Egypt	0.98 %
131	Yemen	0.97 %
132	Ethiopia	0.88 %
133	Malawi	0.86 %
134	Jamaica	0.85 %
135	Iraq	0.81 %
136	Guinea	0.8 %
137	Guinea-Bissau	0.68 %
138	El Salvador	0.68 %
139	Tanzania	0.67 %
140	Brazil	0.66 %
141	Laos	0.66 %
142	Mongolia	0.65 %
143	Lesotho	0.64 %
144	Nicaragua	0.63 %
145	Nigeria	0.6 %
146	Timor-Leste	0.59 %
147	Sierra Leone	0.58 %
148	Algeria	0.55 %
149	Tunisia	0.51 %
150	Guatemala	0.5 %
151	Cambodia	0.48 %
152	Somalia	0.41 %
153	Honduras	0.37 %
154	Eritrea	0.35 %
155	India its history →	0.33 %
156	Vietnam	0.32 %
157	Solomon Islands	0.3 %
158	Morocco	0.29 %
159	Papua New Guinea	0.29 %
160	Afghanistan	0.23 %
161	North Korea	0.19 %
162	Sri Lanka	0.18 %
163	Haiti	0.17 %
164	Indonesia	0.16 %
165	Myanmar (Burma)	0.15 %
166	China	0.12 %
167	Madagascar	0.12 %
168	Philippines	0.08 %
169	Cuba	0.02 %

9 countries or territories have no value that year.

Continent averages

World (population-weighted average)	3.7 %
Europe (average)	12 %
Africa (average)	1.9 %
Americas (average)	7.5 %
Asia (average)	1.7 %
Oceania (average)	21.6 %

Understanding this map

What this figure measures

The UN counts as an international migrant anyone living in a country other than their country of birth, refugees included, whatever their nationality. For France this gives about 14%: more than Insee's 11%, which counts as immigrants only people born foreign abroad, not French-born citizens born outside France. A few countries, lacking place-of-birth data, count foreign nationals instead.

The gaps

The records are in the Gulf, where foreign workers outnumber nationals: about 77% in Qatar, 74% in the UAE, 67% in Kuwait. Then small, very open countries (Luxembourg, about half; Singapore) and Switzerland (31%). Germany (20%), the United Kingdom (17%), the United States (15%) and France (14%) sit in a similar range. At the other end, Japan (under 3%) and above all China and India, where immigrants are under 1%. Worldwide, about 3.7% of people live outside their country of birth, against 2.8% in 1990.

Limits

UN estimates are made every five years (1990, 1995… 2020, then 2024); years in between are interpolated (the tooltip says so). Borders matter: after 1991, residents of the former USSR born in another republic became “migrants” without moving, hence high shares in Kazakhstan or Estonia. Irregular migrants are poorly counted.

Sources : ONU DESA, International Migrant Stock, via Gapminder (CC BY 4.0)

In the same theme : Population

Population and density Aged 65+Immigrants

All maps

Electoral democracy index Women's right to vote Life expectancy at birth Children dying before age 5 Children per woman GDP per capita Economic freedom index Median income per person per month Income inequality (Gini index)Income share of the richest 10%Extreme poverty (under $2.15 a day)Tax revenue Public debt Public debt per person Public spending Military spending Public spending on education Public spending on health Public social spending Research and development spending Share of public debt held abroad Interest paid on public debt Share of taxes eaten up by interest on debt Public debt in years of taxes Total government revenue Top marginal income tax rate Budget balance: deficit or surplus Interest-growth gap (r − g)10-year government borrowing rate Household electricity prices Gender gap in hourly wages CO₂ emissions per person — on the territory Share of electricity from low-carbon (renewables + nuclear) sources Population and density Share of people aged 65 and over Immigrants as a share of the population Share of people with no religion Largest religion Countries accessible without a visa

Page updated on 2026-11-03.