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Total number of international immigrants

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Migration

What you should know about this indicator

International migrant stock at mid-year by age and sex and by region, country or area of destination, 1990-2020

Total number of international immigrants
People living in a given country who were born in another country.
Source
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2020) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
July 16, 2024
Next expected update
July 2026
Date range
1990–2020

Related research and writing

How do countries measure immigration, and how accurate is this data?

Simon van Teutem and Tuna Acisu

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The estimates of the number (or “stock”) of international migrants disaggregated by age, sex and country or area of origin are based on national statistics, in most cases obtained from population censuses. Additionally, population registers and nationally representative surveys provided information on the number and composition of international migrants.

The dataset presents estimates of international migrant by age, sex and origin. Estimates are presented for 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020 and are available for 232 countries and areas of the world. The estimates are based on official statistics on the foreign-born or the foreign population.

Retrieved on
July 16, 2024
Retrieved from
https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/content/international-migrant-stock
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2020). International Migrant Stock 2020.

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All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Total number of international immigrants”, part of the following publication: Fiona Spooner, Tuna Acisu, Hannah Ritchie, Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, Max Roser and Marcel Gerber (2022) - “Migration”. Data adapted from United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/migrant-stock-total [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2020) – with minor processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2020) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “Total number of international immigrants” [dataset]. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, “International Migrant Stock 2020 - POP/DB/MIG/Stock/Rev.2020” [original data]. Retrieved November 21, 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/migrant-stock-total