The United Nations counts international migrants as people of any age who live outside their country (or in some cases, territory) of birth – regardless of their motives for migrating, their length of residence or their legal status.
In addition to naturalized citizens and permanent residents, the UN’s international migrant numbers include asylum-seekers and refugees, as well as people without official residence documents. The UN also includes some people who live in a country temporarily – like some students and guest workers – but it does not include short-term visitors like tourists, nor does it typically include military forces deployed abroad.
For brevity, this report refers to international migrants simply as migrants. Occasionally, we use the term immigrants to differentiate migrants living in a destination country from emigrants who have left an origin country. Every person who is living outside of his or her country of birth is all three – a migrant, an immigrant and an emigrant.
The analysis in this report focuses on existing stocks of international migrants – all people who now live outside their birth country, no matter when they left. We do not estimate migration flows – how many people move across borders in any single year.
Generally speaking, migrants tend to move to regions where their religion is common among the native-born population. This may be due to religious similarities within regions – many migrants move to nearby countries – as well as the appeal of moving into a religiously familiar community.
For example, Christians make up a majority of immigrants living in Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa – all regions with large existing Christian populations. Muslims are by far the biggest group of migrants in the Middle East-North Africa region.
However, some regions also receive large numbers of migrants who identify with minority religions – enough to significantly increase the presence of some small groups in some countries.
For example, a Pew Research Center analysis in 2017 found that an influx of Muslim migrants helped increase the share of Europe’s overall population that is Muslim from 4% in 2010 to 5% in 2016 and made larger shifts in some individual countries. Syria was the most common origin for Muslims who migrated to Europe during this period, and most arrived as refugees fleeing Syria’s civil war.
Asia and the Pacific
Just 1% of the Asia-Pacific population is composed of migrants, the smallest share of any region in this study. Asia and the Pacific hosts 55.1 million immigrants of a wide array of faiths, 70% of whom moved from another country (or in some cases, territory) within the region.
Religious composition
Like the region’s native-born population, immigrants in Asia and the Pacific are religiously diverse. One-third are Muslim, just under a quarter are Christian, and most of the rest are about evenly divided between the religiously unaffiliated, Buddhists and Hindus. Migrants living in the Asia-Pacific region are more likely than the overall population to be Christian, Muslim or Buddhist, but they are less likely to be religiously unaffiliated or Hindu.
Most common origins
Migrants living in the Asia-Pacific region are most likely to have come from China (6.4 million); Afghanistan (4.6 million); Russia (4.2 million); Syria (3.9 million); and Myanmar, also called Burma (3.4 million).
Most common destinations
Australia hosts more immigrants than any other country in the region (7.7 million), followed by Turkey (6.1 million), India (4.9 million), Kazakhstan (3.7 million) and Thailand (3.6 million).
Europe
Roughly 86.8 million international migrants live in Europe, the largest number of any region in this study. About 12% of people in Europe are living outside their country of birth, of which more than half were born in another European country. These figures include people who have migrated within the European Union and those who came from non-EU countries, such as Russia. (Refer to Appendix A for details on which countries are included in each region.)
Religious composition
Most migrants in Europe (56%) are Christian. An estimated 20% are religiously unaffiliated and 18% are Muslim. Europe’s overall population is 72% Christian, 20% unaffiliated and 7% Muslim. (Refer to the “Spotlight on Europe” sidebar for an analysis of the compositional differences between migrants from outside and within Europe.)
Most common origins
As of 2020, the largest populations of international migrants living in Europe were from Russia (6.5 million) and Ukraine (5.0 million), as well as from Poland, Kazakhstan and Romania (each with about 4 million immigrants).
Most common destinations
Germany was home to the largest number of immigrants in the region (15.8 million), followed by Russia (11.6 million), the United Kingdom (9.4 million), France (8.5 million) and Spain (6.8 million).
Latin America and the Caribbean
There are 14.8 million immigrants living outside their country of origin in Latin America and the Caribbean. Most of them (78%) were born in the region. This migrant population – the smallest of any region analyzed here – makes up an estimated 2% of all people living in the area.
Religious composition
An estimated 83% of immigrants in the Latin America-Caribbean region are Christian, and 11% are unaffiliated. Both figures are similar to those religious groups’ shares of the overall population. Every country in the region has a Christian majority.
Most common origins
Venezuela is the most frequent country of origin for migrants in the Latin America-Caribbean region, with 4.5 million Venezuelan migrants living in the region. The next most common origin countries are Colombia (1.5 million), the United States (1.3 million), Haiti (900,000) and Paraguay (760,000).
Most common destinations
The countries in the region that host the largest numbers of migrants are Argentina (2.3 million), Colombia (1.9 million), Chile (1.6 million), Venezuela (1.3 million) and Peru (1.2 million).
Middle East and North Africa
Forty-three million people in the Middle East-North Africa region – or 10% of the region’s overall population – were born in another country (or in some cases, territory). This includes many migrant workers from within the region or from Asia who are living in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
Religious composition
About three-quarters of the region’s immigrants are estimated to be Muslim, while 12% are Christian and 8% Hindu. Another 4% are Jewish; they primarily live in Israel. The region’s overall population is 93% Muslim, 4% Christian and 1% Jewish.
Most common origins
People born in India are by far the largest group of migrants in the Middle East and North Africa, with 9.9 million Indians living there. Many Indians and others from South Asia come to GCC countries to work and eventually return home. (Read the “Spotlight on India” and “Spotlight on the Gulf Cooperation Council countries” sections for more details.)
About 4.0 million immigrants in the Middle East-North Africa region were born in the Palestinian territories, and many others come from Bangladesh (3.6 million), Pakistan (3.5 million) and Syria (3.2 million).
Most common destinations
About half of the region’s immigrants live in Saudi Arabia (13.5 million) or the United Arab Emirates (8.7 million). Jordan and Kuwait follow distantly with around 3 million immigrants each, and Oman hosts 2.4 million.
North America
Fifty-nine million people from all over the world live as immigrants in North America. This population makes up 16% of all North Americans, the highest percentage of any major region in the study. (Europe has the largest number of immigrants, however.)
(Mexico is considered part of the Latin America-Caribbean region in this analysis. Refer to the Methodology for details on how we defined regions.)
Religious composition
Roughly seven-in-ten international migrants in North America are Christian and 14% are religiously unaffiliated. Muslims (8%), Hindus (5%), Buddhists (3%), people of “other religions” (2%) and Jews (1%) make up smaller shares.
Compared with the overall U.S. population – in which 70% of people have a religious affiliation and 30% do not – international migrants are more likely to claim a religious affiliation and less likely to be religiously unaffiliated.
Most common origins
About 11.9 million international migrants in North America were born in Mexico, by far the most common place of origin, followed by 3.7 million from India, 3.1 million from China, 2.9 million from the Philippines and 2.0 million from Puerto Rico. (The United Nations categorizes Puerto Rico as a separate entity from the U.S., even though Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens at birth.)
Most common destinations
The U.S. is home to some 50.6 million immigrants, making it the world’s top destination country for international migrants. Overall, 15% of Americans are immigrants. (These numbers are slightly higher than Pew Research Center estimates published earlier this year, largely due to the way the UN categorizes people born in Puerto Rico. Read more in the “Spotlight on the United States” section.) Canada hosts 8 million immigrants, making up 21% of its population.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa has 22.2 million international migrants. Only 2% of people in the region live outside their country (or in some cases, territory) of birth.
Religious composition
Migrants in sub-Saharan Africa are 54% Christian and 37% Muslim. Another 5% are from “other religions” — including traditional African religions — and 4% are estimated to be religiously unaffiliated. By comparison, the region’s overall population is 62% Christian and 31% Muslim.
Most common origins
Many of the migrants living in the region were born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1.9 million), South Sudan (1.7 million), Burkina Faso (1.6 million) and Mali (1.2 million).
Most common destinations
South Africa hosts the largest immigrant population in the region (2.9 million), followed by Ivory Coast (2.6 million), Uganda (1.7 million), Nigeria (1.3 million) and Ethiopia (1.1 million).
Distance traveled by migrants
The average international migrant traveled an estimated 2,200 miles between their origin and destination countries. But the typical distance for migrants to have traveled varies by religious affiliation.
Hindus tend to have made the longest moves, with an average of 3,100 miles between their country of birth and where they currently live, largely because many have traveled from India to far-flung destinations like the U.S. and the UK.
The shortest moves are made by Muslims, whose birth and destination countries are separated by an average of 1,700 miles. Jews, Christians, Buddhists and the religiously unaffiliated all tend to have migrated similar distances, typically between 2,300 and 2,500 miles.
Refer to our “Geographic spotlights” section for in-depth analyses of migration in Europe, GCC countries, India and the United States.
