Daily Data InsightsThe share of immigrants in high-income countries doubled between 1990 and 2020

December 26, 2024

The share of immigrants in high-income countries doubled between 1990 and 2020

A line graph titled "What share of the population was born in another country?" displays two trends over time from 1990 to 2020.

A blue line labeled "High-income countries" demonstrates that, between 1990 and 2020, the share of people born in another country doubled, rising steadily from just above 7% in 1990 to more than 14% in 2020. In contrast, a red line labeled "Global average" indicates a much slower increase, starting from approximately 3% in 1990 and reaching just under 4% by 2020, indicating slight growth.

The data source is listed at the bottom as the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, along with a website link: OurWorldInData.org/migration and a copyright indication (CC BY).

In international statistics, immigrants are people who have lived for more than one year in a country other than the one where they were born.

Between 1990 and 2020, the share of immigrants in high-income countries doubled, rising from around 7% to 14%. This means that today, one in seven people in high-income countries was born in a different country.

High-income countries often attract migrants with better living conditions, including higher wages, stable political environments, and better public services. In turn, migration has become a crucial driver of population growth in these countries: without migration, the population of high-income countries would have declined since 2020.

This growth is much quicker than in other parts of the world. In contrast, the global share of migrants increased only slightly, with less than one percentage point.

Explore the percentage of immigrants in all countries →

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A world map illustrates the share of the population living in multidimensional poverty, defined as deprivation in health, education, and living standards. The map employs varying shades of purple and pink to indicate the percentage of the population affected by multidimensional poverty in different countries.
Countries are marked with a gradient from light pink (representing 0% of the population living in multidimensional poverty) to dark purple (representing 100%). For some countries, specific percentages are highlighted, such as 91% in Niger, 84% in Chad, and 80% in the Central African Republic. Areas with no data are shown in diagonal stripes. The footer notes the data comes from Alkire, Kanagaratnam, and Suppa (2024) as part of the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2024. It mentions that the estimates are based on recent household survey data from 2011 to 2023, but for 62% of countries, the data refers to the period after 2018. The chart is published by Our World in Data.

Today

In many countries, more than half of the population faces poverty in multiple dimensions

The experience of poverty goes far beyond having no or low income. Unfortunately, still in many countries today, a large share of people experience severe poverty in many areas of life, such as health, education, and living standards.

To capture this broader reality, researchers from the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and the UN Development Programme developed the global Multidimensional Poverty Index. This group of indicators measures poverty across essential areas of well-being, capturing whether people are undernourished, whether they lost a child, and lack access to education or basic facilities like clean water or electricity.

The map shows the share of the population in each country living in multidimensional poverty, highlighting where households face overlapping deprivations.

In countries across South America and some in East Asia, this share is less than 10%. But in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, more than half of the people experience these extreme conditions. The share even exceeds 4 in 5 people in Niger (91%), Chad (84%), and the Central African Republic (80%).

These figures are based on data from over 100 countries drawn from household surveys conducted between 2011 and 2023.

Read more on our article: Beyond income: understanding poverty through the Multidimensional Poverty Index →

Yesterday

The world has passed “peak child”

The number of children in the world has stopped growing. This moment in time was given the term “peak child” by the late Hans Rosling.

The chart shows the estimated number of children under five years old globally up to 2023, with projections from the United Nations out to 2100. The UN thinks the number of under-5s peaked in 2017.

The chart also shows the number of young people under 15, which peaked in 2021. And the number of under-25s, which may have peaked last year.

“Peak child” is a sign that the world is on course for “peak population”. The UN expects the world population to start falling before the end of the century.

Read more about the key insights from the latest UN World Population Prospects →

This is an image of a scatter plot comparing the share of adult men and women who smoke any form of tobacco across different countries. The x-axis represents the share of women who smoke, while the y-axis represents the share of men who smoke. Each dot on the graph represents a country, and countries are color-coded by region: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America.

The plot shows that in almost every country, a higher percentage of men smoke compared to women, as most countries fall above the diagonal line labeled "A higher share of men smoke."

January 10

Men are more likely to smoke than women almost everywhere in the world

Almost one-quarter of adults in the world smoke tobacco. However, there are significant differences by gender.

More than one-third of men smoke, while less than one in ten women do.

Men are more likely to smoke in almost every country in the world. You can see this on the chart, which plots the share of men who smoke versus the share of women. Nearly all countries lie above the diagonal line, which means more men smoke than women.

This data is collated and published by the World Bank. It’s based on adults aged 15 years and older and includes all tobacco products.

Explore all of our data and research on smoking across the world →

This chart presents US cancer death rates in children under five years old, measured in reported annual death rates per 100,000 children. It consists of four graphs:

1. All Malignant Cancers Combined: This graph, shown in black, illustrates a decline in childhood cancer death rates from about 11 per 100,000 in 1950 to around 1.8 in 2021, indicating a six-fold decrease since the 1950s.

2. Leukemia: This graph shows a decrease from around 5 per 100,000 in 1950 to less than 1 in 2021, following a similar declining trend throughout the decades.

3. Brain and Nervous System Cancers: This chart shows some fluctuations but overall a decline from nearly 0.8 per 100,000 in 1950 to about 0.4 in 2021.

4. Lymphomas and Multiple Myeloma: This graph shows fluctuations and a decline from around 0.8 in the late 1950s to less than 0.2 by 2021.

The data is sourced from the WHO Mortality Database (2024), with a note indicating that figures may fluctuate year-by-year due to low numbers.

January 09

Childhood cancer deaths in the United States have declined six-fold over the last seventy years

Childhood cancer deaths in the United States have fallen dramatically over time, as shown in the chart. It presents annual cancer death rates in children under five years old.

There has been a six-fold decline since the 1950s.

This progress reflects decades of collaboration between scientists, clinicians, and public health workers.

One major success story has been in treating acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a common form of leukemia in children: researchers identified genetic mutations that caused the disease, making it possible to develop targeted chemotherapy drugs that have greatly improved survival. Surgeries, bone marrow transplants, and other treatments have also played a role.

We’ve also seen big improvements for other blood cancers, such as lymphomas and multiple myeloma, though progress has been slower for cancers of the brain and nervous system.

Explore more data on our page on cancer →

A graph depicting female life expectancy at birth over the years, with the vertical axis representing lifespan in years, and the horizontal axis indicating years from 1840 to 2023. Various colored dots represent different countries, with Hong Kong with the highest in 2023 at 88.1 years. The graph notes that Hong Kong and Japan have held records for the past 40 years. Previously, countries like Iceland, Norway, Australia, and Sweden were among the highest. Data sources are the Human Mortality Database for 2024 and UN World Population Prospects for 2024.

January 08

Life expectancy has continued to rise in the longest-lived countries

Record national life expectancies have been climbing for over a century.

In 1840, Swedish women had a life expectancy of 46 years — the highest of any country recorded that year. By 1921, Australia held the record at 63 years.

For most of the 20th century, Iceland, Norway, Australia, and Sweden competed for the top position before being overtaken by Japan in 1984. Hong Kong and Japan have held the records since then.

These countries didn’t merely catch up; they’ve continued to push the limits higher.

Japan added six more years to female life expectancy between 1984 and 2010, rising from 80 to 86 years.

This remarkable rise has resulted from many advances in medicine, public health, and living standards — breaking many predictions of the “limits” of life expectancy.

Read more in our article about the rise of maximum life expectancy →

A bar chart titled "What are the main destination countries for Syrian emigrants?" displays the total number of Syrian emigrants living in various countries as of 2020.

The first bar, the tallest, represents Turkey with 3.79 million emigrants. The second bar belongs to Lebanon, showing 1.04 million emigrants. Saudi Arabia follows with 823,000 emigrants. The subsequent bars indicate Germany with 707,000, Jordan with 699,000, and Iraq with 254,000 emigrants. Sweden has 191,000; Egypt has 126,000; the Netherlands has 89,000; the United States has 84,200; and Canada has 57,000.

A note explains that in 2020, around two-thirds of all Syrian emigrants lived in Turkey, Lebanon, or Saudi Arabia. The data source is the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs from 2020. It further clarifies that the numbers reflect cumulative migrant stock, not the number of migrants who moved that year.

January 07

Almost half of people born in Syria have left. Where have they gone?

Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, many people have left the country. By 2020, around 8.5 millions had emigrated, representing nearly half (48%) of all people born in the country.

As you can see on the chart, most Syrian emigrants have stayed close to home. Two-thirds of Syrian emigrants now live in Turkey, Lebanon, or Saudi Arabia, with Turkey alone hosting over 40%.

Political obstacles have made it difficult for Syrian migrants to move beyond neighboring countries and reach Europe. In 2016, the European Union and Turkey made a deal to curb migration by keeping migrants in Turkey in exchange for 6 billion euros in aid.

The Syrian case is part of a larger global pattern: most individuals who leave their country stay in the same continent.

Read our full article on how far migrants travel from their home countries →

A line graph comparing GDP per capita between Singapore and Western Europe from 1960 to 2022. The vertical axis represents GDP per capita in international dollars, ranging from $0 to $80,300, while the horizontal axis marks the years from 1960 to 2022.

Singapore's GDP per capita is represented by a blue line that rises sharply over the years, starting at around $3,460 in 1960 and reaching about $80,300 by 2022. The red line represents Western Europe, which shows a steadier increase from approximately $10,900 in 1960 to around $41,300 by 2022.

An annotation indicates that since 1960, Singapore's GDP per capita has grown 23-fold, moving from one-third of Western Europe's level to nearly double.

Data sources include Bolt and van Zanden from the Maddison Project Database 2023. The note specifies that this data is expressed in international dollars at 2011 prices. The image credit is attributed to Our World in Data, with a CC BY license.

January 06

Since 1960, Singapore's GDP per capita has risen from one-third of that of Western Europe to twice as much

In 1960, Singapore’s GDP per capita — a measure of average income — was a third of the average in Western Europe. It was even lower than Western Europe’s average income in 1900.

Since then, while Western Europe experienced steady growth, Singapore grew even faster. By 1994, it had surpassed Western Europe, and today, its average income is roughly twice as high. This is after adjusting for inflation and differences in living costs between countries.

Singapore became an independent republic in 1965. Key factors in its economic success include anti-corruption policies, investment in education and human capital, and its development as a global financial hub.

Explore how GDP per capita trajectories compare across countries →