1995–2024 · UN DESA / UNHCR via Our World in Data
International migrants, refugees and asylum seekers — one tab, three sub-themes (Migrants / Refugees / Asylum), each toggling Origin ↔ Host country. A seven-point series from 1995 to 2024.
The Asylum sub-theme follows a UNHCR series that only starts in 2000 (1995 stays empty). The logarithmic scale is shared between the two directions of a given sub-theme, to allow a genuine comparison when toggling between them; each sub-theme keeps its own scale otherwise, as the orders of magnitude differ sharply between economic migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
Time slider. "Origin" counts people born in the country who now live elsewhere; "Host country" counts those residing there, whatever their country of birth.
The United States hosts over 52 million international migrants, well ahead of Germany (16.8 million) — but the refugee ranking tells a different story: Iran (3.5 million, mostly Afghan) and Turkey (2.9 million, mostly Syrian) host more refugees than any Western country, most displacement flowing toward a neighbouring country rather than a distant, wealthy one.