Almost one half of all migrants of the planet live in only ten countries. Of these, 51 million people live in the United States.
Since 2010, the number of migrants in the world has grown by 51 million people – up to 272 million. More than half of them live in only 10 countries. Such data are contained in the UN report, presented the day before at the headquarters of this organization in New York, Ukrinform reports on Wednesday, September 18.
“The number of international migrants in the world has reached an estimated mark of 272 million people in 2019, which is 51 million more than the level of 2010”, – the report said.
UN experts report that migrants now make up 3.5% of the world’s population (for comparison, in the year of 2000, the number of migrants comprised 2.8%).
The organization does not estimate the figures, but notes that with an orderly, safe, predictable migration and mobility of people, such a movement can have positive results, in particular, contribute to economic development and the achievement of the UN sustainable development Goals.
“Europe holds the leadership as a point of migrants’ direction (82 million people), followed by North America (59 million) and West Asia (49 million)”, – the report said.
Almost a half of all migrants on the planet live in only ten countries. 51 million in the United States (19% of their total), 13 million in Germany and Saudi Arabia, 12 million in Russia, 10 million in the UK, 9 million in the UAE, and 8 million in France and Canada. and Australia, 6 million in Italy.
A third of all international migrants are also come from 10 countries.
“India leads: 18 million Indians live abroad. Migrants from Mexico make up the second largest diaspora – 12 million. Immigrants from China comprise 11 million, the Russian Federation 10 million, Syria – 8 million”, – the UN reports.
The report also notes that involuntary resettlement continues to grow in the world as a result of wars and other similar circumstances. From 2010 to 2017, the number of refugees and asylum seekers increased by 13 million, which is a quarter of additional migrants during this time. North Africa and West Asia received about 46% of refugees.
One in seven migrants in the world is under 20 years old. Three out of four are of working age (20-64 years).
To a clarifying question, the speakers emphasized that internally displaced persons are not included in these figures, these data relate exclusively to international migration.
The report on international migration is created by UN specialists based on censuses of countries, population registers, and nationally representative surveys. Its data are distributed by age, gender, origin, covering 232 countries and territories as of July 1 of each year of the study. Previous reports were published in 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015.
Earlier, the UN said that in 2018 the number of refugees in the world increased by 2.3 million and exceeded 70 million people, which was a new record. The number of refugees increased due to Ethiopia, where more than 1.5 million people became internally displaced persons, as well as due to Syria and Venezuela.