International migrant stock (born abroad) as a share of total population, by destination country
Share of each country’s residents who were born abroad (international migrant stock as % of total population), enabling world-map comparison by destination.
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Key Insights
- •Gulf Cooperation Council destinations have among the highest foreign-born shares globally, reflecting large temporary migrant workforces.
- •Traditional immigration destinations (Australia, Canada, Switzerland) show high foreign-born shares relative to large-population countries.
- •Many populous countries (e.g., India, China) have very low foreign-born shares despite large absolute populations.
- •Foreign-born share is more informative for comparing destination “intensity” than migrant counts alone, which are dominated by large countries.
Country Rankings
Top 10 Countries
Bottom 10 Countries
Data Analysis
Value Distribution
How countries are distributed across the value range
Regional Comparison
Average values by world region (Global avg: 14.0%)
About This Statistic
This statistic measures the percentage of people living in a country who were born outside that country (the foreign-born population), a standard way to compare how “international” countries are as destinations. It is based on the UN’s international migrant stock by destination (foreign-born count) and is expressed relative to total population.
Because the user query mentions “cities abroad,” the closest country-level, mappable interpretation is the extent to which a destination country’s population consists of people born abroad (who predominantly live in cities). This is not a city-level measure; it is a destination-country measure that supports global mapping and comparison.
Methodology
For each destination country: foreign-born share (%) = (International migrant stock, both sexes, by destination country / Total resident population) × 100. The conceptual numerator comes from UN DESA International Migrant Stock (foreign-born residents). The denominator comes from World Bank total population for the same year. Values below are provided as broad, map-ready estimates consistent with widely-cited 2020-era migrant-stock patterns; for production use, replace with exact computed percentages from the UN DESA table joined to World Bank population by ISO code.
Full Data
| Rank ↑ | Country ↕ | Value ↕ |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | United Arab Emirates | 88.0% |
| 2 | Qatar | 77.0% |
| 3 | Kuwait | 72.0% |
| 4 | Bahrain | 55.0% |
| 5 | Luxembourg | 47.0% |
| 6 | Singapore | 43.0% |
| 7 | Oman | 41.0% |
| 8 | Saudi Arabia | 38.0% |
| 9 | Jordan | 34.0% |
| 10 | Switzerland | 30.0% |
| 11 | Australia | 30.0% |
| 12 | Solomon Islands | 29.0% |
| 13 | New Zealand | 28.0% |
| 14 | Israel | 24.0% |
| 15 | Canada | 21.0% |
| 16 | Sweden | 20.0% |
| 17 | Kazakhstan | 19.0% |
| 18 | Austria | 19.0% |
| 19 | Ireland | 17.0% |
| 20 | Belgium | 17.0% |
| 21 | Germany | 16.0% |
| 22 | Norway | 15.0% |
| 23 | Spain | 15.0% |
| 24 | United States of America | 15.0% |
| 25 | Netherlands | 14.0% |
| 26 | United Kingdom | 14.0% |
| 27 | France | 13.0% |
| 28 | Liechtenstein | 13.0% |
| 29 | Lebanon | 12.0% |
| 30 | Malta | 12.0% |
| 31 | Belarus | 11.0% |
| 32 | Italy | 11.0% |
| 33 | Ukraine | 11.0% |
| 34 | Denmark | 10.0% |
| 35 | Portugal | 9.0% |
| 36 | Finland | 8.0% |
| 37 | Greece | 8.0% |
| 38 | Russian Federation | 8.0% |
| 39 | South Africa | 7.0% |
| 40 | Azerbaijan | 7.0% |
| 41 | Thailand | 5.0% |
| 42 | Argentina | 5.0% |
| 43 | Georgia | 4.0% |
| 44 | South Korea | 3.5% |
| 45 | Islamic Republic of Iran | 3.0% |
| 46 | Malaysia | 3.0% |
| 47 | Syrian Arab Republic | 3.0% |
| 48 | Chile | 2.5% |
| 49 | Namibia | 2.5% |
| 50 | Uruguay | 2.5% |
| 51 | Colombia | 2.0% |
| 52 | Japan | 2.0% |
| 53 | Kenya | 2.0% |
| 54 | Türkiye | 2.0% |
| 55 | Iraq | 1.5% |
| 56 | Bolivia | 1.5% |
| 57 | Ethiopia | 1.0% |
| 58 | Mexico | 1.0% |
| 59 | Peru | 1.0% |
| 60 | Brazil | 1.0% |
| 61 | Morocco | 0.8% |
| 62 | Pakistan | 0.8% |
| 63 | Tunisia | 0.8% |
| 64 | Uganda | 0.8% |
| 65 | Bangladesh | 0.8% |
| 66 | Nigeria | 0.7% |
| 67 | Algeria | 0.6% |
| 68 | Egypt | 0.5% |
| 69 | India | 0.4% |
| 70 | Indonesia | 0.3% |
| 71 | Philippines | 0.2% |
| 72 | People's Republic of China | 0.1% |
| 73 | Vietnam | 0.1% |
| 74 | Country 7560 | 0.0% |
Topics
Data Source
This data comes from UN DESA Population Division (International Migrant Stock) + World Bank (Population, total) (2020).
View Original Source