The most frequent international migration journeys are between neighboring countries

One way to understand how far international migrants move is to measure the shortest distance between the borders of their origin and destination countries.

The chart above shows these distances for all international migrant populations worldwide. It includes the total number of people living outside their home country rather than yearly migration flows.

Most migration journeys are short, with neighboring countries (shown as “0 km” on the chart) the most common destinations. Nearly half of all migrants — about 47% — move less than 500 kilometers, roughly the distance from the Netherlands to Switzerland. The median distance between origin and destination countries is just under 600 kilometers.

24% of migrants travel over 3,000 kilometers, about the distance from Ukraine to Portugal. Only a small fraction — less than 4% — move more than 10,000 kilometers, roughly equivalent to a journey from Madagascar to the United Kingdom.

Read our full article on how far migrants travel from their home countries →

Where this page came from

This page was imported from Our World in Data. “The most frequent international migration journeys are between neighboring countries” by Simon van Teutem, Tuna Acisu, published by Our World in Data under CC BY 4.0. Changed here: set as a page, its interactive charts shown as pictures. Data from third parties keeps its own licence.

Nobody has written it yet — it is the source material at a new address, which is why search engines are asked to skip it and why no one earns from it. It is up for grabs: take it on, and it is yours to rewrite and to earn from.