Mapping Global Migration: Where Migrants Live and Where They Were Born

• In 2024, approximately 280 million people—about 3.5% of the global population—lived in a country other than the one where they were born.
• Our World in Data has released an interactive visualization tool to explore these migration patterns, specifically focusing on country-to-country birth and residency data.

Interactive Visualization Features

• The tool displays data for individual countries, showing the origin of current residents (immigrants) and the destinations of citizens who have moved abroad (emigrants).
• Users can refine the view by selecting specific countries, filtering by sex, adjusting the timeframe via a slider, or focusing exclusively on immigration or emigration data.
• The tool utilizes United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) data, which captures total residency stocks rather than annual movement flows.

Context and Methodology

• Most international migration involves crossing nearby borders; long-distance migration remains the exception.
• Data is compiled using a mix of censuses, surveys, and border records.
• A June 2026 correction was applied to include an "Other countries" category for immigrants of unknown origin, adjusting totals in the underlying UN dataset.
• The visualization is provided as open-access content under a Creative Commons BY license.