IOM – World Migration Report, 2024

The vast majority of people in the world still live in their countries of birth, with only one in 30 being migrants. Understanding the changes in migration patterns is crucial for making sense of the evolving global landscape and planning for the future. The global estimate for international migrants was around 281 million in 2020, accounting for 3.6 percent of the world's population. This number has been on the rise over the past five decades, increasing by 128 million since 1990 and over three times since 1970. There are currently more male international migrants than female, with the gender gap widening over the past two decades. In 2020, there were 146 million male migrants compared to 135 million female migrants, a shift from the 2000 split of 88 million male migrants to 86 million female migrants. The share of female migrants has been decreasing since 2000, while the share of male migrants has increased by 1.3 percentage points.