The living atlas
Every line is a route that millions of people have walked, flown, sailed, or waited years to complete. Explore the map, then open a country profile for history, context, adaptation, and support.
Hover a route or a destination, then select it to open that country profile. Circle size shows how many people living there were born somewhere else.
UN DESA · IOM · rounded estimates
Country library
Learn why people move, where they connect, what adaptation can require, and where trusted help begins.
34 country profiles
Southern Asia
Origin country
Afghanistan has produced one of the longest running displacement situations in the world, with large populations in Iran and Pakistan and a growing presence in Europe.
Open profile →Oceania
Receiving country
Australia has built one of the world's most diverse populations through a planned migration programme and a very large student intake.
Open profile →Southern Asia
Origin country
Bangladesh sends a very large number of contract workers abroad, mainly to the Gulf and Malaysia, and hosts close to one million Rohingya refugees.
Open profile →Northern America
Receiving country
Canada has one of the highest shares of residents born abroad among large countries, with a managed points based system and strong regional programmes.
Open profile →Eastern Asia
Origin country
China has one of the largest populations abroad in the world, built on study, skilled work, family reunification, and long standing merchant diasporas.
Open profile →Northern Africa
Origin country
Egypt sends large numbers of workers to the Gulf and hosts a growing refugee population from Sudan, Syria, and the Horn of Africa.
Open profile →Western Europe
Receiving country
France has one of Europe's oldest and most settled immigrant populations, shaped by colonial history, labour recruitment, and family reunification.
Open profile →Western Europe
Receiving country
Germany is the largest destination in Europe, shaped by guest worker history, European Union movement, and two major protection intakes.
Open profile →Caribbean
Origin country
Haiti is one of the largest origin countries in the Caribbean, with long established communities across the Americas and France, and movement that has accelerated with insecurity and repeated disasters.
Open profile →Southern Asia
Origin and receiving
India has the largest population living abroad of any country, spread across the Gulf, North America, Europe, and South East Asia, and it also hosts millions of people from its neighbours.
Open profile →South Eastern Asia
Origin country
Indonesia sends a large number of workers abroad, especially domestic and plantation workers to Malaysia and the Gulf, with strong female participation.
Open profile →Southern Europe
Receiving country
Italy is both a major destination, especially for care and agricultural work, and a country whose own young people continue to leave.
Open profile →Western Asia
Receiving country
Jordan hosts one of the highest shares of refugees in the world relative to its population, alongside a large migrant workforce.
Open profile →Central Asia
Origin and receiving
Kazakhstan is a regional hub that receives workers from across Central Asia while many of its own nationals live in Russia and beyond.
Open profile →Western Asia
Receiving country
Kuwait has one of the world's highest shares of foreign residents, concentrated in construction, services, and domestic work.
Open profile →South Eastern Asia
Receiving country
Malaysia depends heavily on foreign workers in plantations, manufacturing, construction, and domestic work, mainly from Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Nepal.
Open profile →Latin America
Origin country
Mexico is the origin of the single largest country to country migration corridor in the world and, increasingly, a country people cross into and remain in.
Open profile →Northern Africa
Origin country
Morocco has a long established community in Europe and has become a country where West African migrants settle rather than only pass through.
Open profile →South Eastern Asia
Origin country
Myanmar combines large scale labour migration to Thailand and Malaysia with major forced displacement, including the Rohingya.
Open profile →Southern Asia
Origin and receiving
Pakistan is both a major source of contract and skilled workers and one of the world's largest hosts of refugees, most of them Afghan.
Open profile →South Eastern Asia
Origin country
The Philippines has built one of the world's most organised systems of overseas work, with care, health, seafaring, and service workers in almost every region.
Open profile →Eastern Europe
Origin and receiving
Poland shifted within a generation from a country people left to one of Europe's largest hosts, above all for Ukrainian arrivals.
Open profile →Eastern Europe
Origin country
Romania has one of the largest emigrant populations in the European Union relative to its size, and is now beginning to receive workers from outside Europe.
Open profile →Eastern Europe
Origin and receiving
Russia is at once one of the largest destinations for labour migration in the world and the source of one of the largest populations living abroad.
Open profile →Western Asia
Receiving country
Saudi Arabia is one of the world's largest destinations for contract labour, with workers from South Asia, Egypt, Yemen, and the Philippines.
Open profile →Southern Europe
Receiving country
Spain moved in one generation from sending workers abroad to hosting one of Europe's largest foreign born populations, with strong Latin American ties.
Open profile →Western Asia
Origin country
Syria produced one of the largest displacement crises of the century, with millions living as refugees in neighbouring countries and Europe, alongside a large internally displaced population.
Open profile →South Eastern Asia
Receiving country
Thailand is the main destination in mainland South East Asia, hosting millions of workers from Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos.
Open profile →Western Asia
Origin and receiving
Türkiye hosts one of the largest refugee populations in the world while retaining a very large community in western Europe built over sixty years.
Open profile →Eastern Europe
Origin and receiving
Ukraine holds one of the largest displacement situations in Europe since the Second World War, alongside a long established pattern of labour migration westward.
Open profile →Western Asia
Receiving country
Around nine in ten residents of the United Arab Emirates were born elsewhere, the highest share of any large country.
Open profile →Northern Europe
Origin and receiving
The United Kingdom is both a major destination, especially for study, care, and health work, and the origin of a large population living abroad.
Open profile →Northern America
Receiving country
The United States hosts more people born abroad than any other country, roughly one in every six residents.
Open profile →Latin America
Origin country
Venezuela is the origin of the largest displacement situation in the Americas, with most people hosted by neighbouring countries in the region.
Open profile →281 million
People living outside their country of birth
UN DESA, international migrant stock
3.6%
Share of the world population
UN DESA
122 million
Forcibly displaced people
UNHCR Global Trends
$905 billion
Remittances sent home each year
World Bank and KNOMAD estimate
Largest corridors
Largest destinations
Country totals explain scale. Volume One and the Voices archive hold the relationships, decisions, and memories that totals cannot contain.