The Countries Losing the Most People to Emigration
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People moving in search of better economic opportunities, safety from conflicts, and improved living conditions is not a new phenomenon.
But by tracking which places are losing the most people by net migration (i.e., having more emigrants than immigrants), it often helps highlight consequences of economic and political developments in the recent past.
We map out the top 14 countries who had significantly more emigrants than immigrants in 2023. All figures are rounded and sourced from the UN’s World Population Prospects 2024.
Ranked: Top Countries By Negative Net Migration
Pakistan had a net negative migration number of 1.6 million people, the highest of all countries in 2023. Other Asian nations like India (-980,000), China (-570,000), and Bangladesh (-550,000) are also far up the ranking.
Listed below are all the countries who’ve seen a negative net migration of at least 10,000 people.
RankCountryNet Migration in 2023
1 Pakistan-1.62M
2 Sudan-1.35M
3 India-979K
4 China-568K
5 Bangladesh-550K
6 Nepal-410K
7 Türkiye-318K
8 Ukraine-300K
9 Brazil-240K
10 Philippines-164K
11 Greece-159K
12 Uganda-126K
13 Venezuela-113K
14 Mexico-101K
15 Zimbabwe-97K
16 Azerbaijan-84K
17 Vietnam-82K
18 Nigeria-58K
19 Afghanistan-49K
20 Mali-40K
21 Morocco-40K
22 Tanzania-39K
23 Indonesia-38K
24 Mozambique-36K
25 Myanmar-35K
26 Dominican Republic-35K
27 Lebanon-34K
28 Taiwan-33K
29 Cambodia-32K
30 Haiti-32K
31 Kosovo-29K
32 Sri Lanka-28K
33 Romania-28K
34 Algeria-26K
35 Albania-25K
36 Palestine-25K
37 Burkina Faso-25K
38 El Salvador-23K
39 Cuba-23K
40 Ecuador-22K
41 Tajikistan-20K
42 Moldova-19K
43 Jordan-17K
44 Eritrea-15K
45 DRC-15K
46 Central African Republic-15K
47 Czechia-15K
48 Tunisia-14K
49 Paraguay-13K
50 Ethiopia-12K
51 Kenya-10K
52 Ghana-10K
53 Laos-10K
54 Jamaica-10K
55 Senegal-10K
Note: Figures rounded.
Sudan, located in Northeast Africa, also posted a net migration number in the negative millions (-1,000,000), due to an ongoing war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). A spokesperson for Doctors Without Borders recently claimed that civilians in Sudan were suffering “horrendous levels of violence.”
Broadly speaking, this dataset can be divided between countries where the migrants are moving for economic or political reasons (India, China, Pakistan) and those that are an active conflict zone (Sudan, Ukraine, Palestine). Of course many countries have a mix of both, with factors feeding into each other.
A glance at the top 20 reveals that regionally, Europe (mostly stable, high income countries) is underrepresented.
More From Visual Capitalist
If you liked this kind of content, check out Charted: EU Emigrants by Country, for the number of emigrants from 15 European countries.
The post Mapped: The Countries Losing the Most People to Emigration appeared first on Visual Capitalist.