Expat Population Statistics 2026: 304M Abroad
The global expat population reached new highs heading into 2026. UN data counts 304 million international migrants worldwide, 3.7% of all people on Earth, roughly double the 1990 figure. The United States alone hosts a record 47.8 million immigrants, and migrants sent home $685 billion in recorded remittances to lower-income countries in 2024. This report compiles 10 verified data points from UN agencies, the World Bank, the ILO, Pew Research, and MBO Partners. Whether you are planning a move abroad or already managing residency across borders, these numbers are the evidence base for where the world is heading.
More people live outside their country of birth than at any point in recorded history. The drivers are familiar: labor demand in wealthy economies, conflict and displacement, family reunification, and a fast-growing cohort of remote workers who carry their jobs across borders. The result is a global population on the move that now rivals the size of entire continents.
This post pulls together 10 statistics on the worldwide expat and migrant population for 2026. Every figure traces to a primary source: UN DESA, the World Bank, the International Labour Organization, the UN Refugee Agency, Pew Research Center, and MBO Partners. Each number is dated to the actual year of the data, not the year it was published.
A note on terms. "Expat," "migrant," and "immigrant" overlap but are not identical. The UN counts anyone living outside their country of birth as an international migrant, which is the broadest and most reliable global measure. We use that as the backbone here and flag narrower definitions where they apply.
1. 304 million people lived outside their country of birth in 2024
There were 304 million international migrants worldwide in 2024, equal to 3.7% of the global population. According to UN DESA data reported by Germany's Federal Statistical Office, the figure has roughly doubled since 1990, when about 154 million people lived abroad and migrants made up 2.9% of humanity.
The absolute growth is striking, but the share is rising more slowly than the headline number suggests. World population also grew over those decades, so the migrant share climbed less than one percentage point in 34 years. Still, 304 million is a population larger than every country except China and India.
For anyone living abroad, the takeaway is scale. The systems built to track, tax, and admit foreign residents are straining against a population that keeps expanding, which is exactly why compliance rules tighten over time.
2. The US hosts a record 47.8 million immigrants
A record 47.8 million immigrants lived in the United States in 2023, up from 46.2 million in 2022. According to Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data, that single-year increase of roughly 1.6 million was the largest since 2000.
Immigrants now make up 14.3% of the total US population, up from 4.7% in 1970, though still just below the historical peak of 14.8% set in 1890. The US remains the single largest destination for people living abroad anywhere in the world.
For US-bound expats, the practical implication is processing strain. A foreign-born population at record size means visa backlogs, longer naturalization queues, and heavier scrutiny at entry, all of which raise the stakes on staying inside the terms of your status.
3. 94% of the UAE's population was foreign-born
The United Arab Emirates is the most expat-dominated country on Earth. Pew Research Center reported that 94% of the UAE population was foreign-born as of 2020, the highest share of any nation. The United States, by contrast, hosts the largest absolute number of immigrants, around 50.6 million in the same year.
The two facts capture the global picture from opposite ends. A handful of Gulf states run on imported labor, where foreign workers vastly outnumber citizens. Large economies like the US, Germany, and the UK absorb the biggest raw totals but keep migrants as a minority of the population.
For expats choosing a base, this distinction matters. Living somewhere built around foreign residents, like the UAE, often means smoother day-to-day logistics but firmer rules on residency renewal and physical presence.
Source: Pew Research Center - Geographic spotlights: A closer look at 4 migration stories (2024)
4. India has the world's largest emigrant population at 18.5 million
India sends more people abroad than any other country. Over 18.5 million people of Indian origin were living overseas in 2024, accounting for 6% of all international migrants worldwide. The estimate comes from UN DESA, since India does not maintain its own official count of emigrants.
The Gulf states and North America absorb the largest shares, with the UAE and the United States each hosting major Indian communities. Mexico and China round out the top three origin countries, but India's lead has held for over a decade.
For the global mobility picture, India is the engine. Its emigrants drive a large slice of worldwide remittances and fill labor gaps across the Gulf, English-speaking economies, and the tech sector, which makes Indian migration patterns a leading indicator for the whole system.
Source: Data For India - International Migration from India (UN DESA data, 2024)
5. Migrants sent home $685 billion in remittances in 2024
Officially recorded remittances to low- and middle-income countries reached an estimated $685 billion in 2024, growing 5.8% over the prior year. According to the World Bank, that is far larger than foreign direct investment and official aid to those countries combined, and the true total is higher once informal channels are counted.
India led all recipients at $129 billion, followed by Mexico at $68 billion, China at $48 billion, the Philippines at $40 billion, and Pakistan at $33 billion. These flows are a direct measure of how much money the global expat workforce moves across borders.
The figure shows why migration is an economic lifeline, not just a demographic trend. For millions of families, an expat relative abroad is the single largest source of household income, which keeps emigration pressure high.
6. 167.7 million migrants are part of the global labour force
International migrants make up a large and growing slice of the world's workers. The International Labour Organization estimated that 167.7 million migrants were part of the labour force in their destination countries in 2022, equal to 4.7% of the global workforce, an increase of more than 30 million since 2013.
Of that total, 102.7 million were men and 64.9 million were women. The ILO also found a wide employment gap by gender: migrant men had an employment-to-population ratio of 72.8%, compared with 48.1% for migrant women.
The implication is that expat populations are overwhelmingly working-age and economically active. Most people who live abroad are there for work, which is precisely the group that has to track days, tax residency, and visa terms across multiple countries.
7. 123 million people were forcibly displaced by the end of 2024
Not all people living abroad chose to leave. The UN Refugee Agency reported that around 123 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide at the end of 2024, the highest figure ever recorded. That total includes 42.7 million refugees and 73.5 million people displaced inside their own countries by conflict and violence.
The number has nearly doubled over the past decade. Sudan, Afghanistan, and Ukraine drove much of the recent surge, with Sudan becoming the world's largest displacement situation.
This statistic is a reminder that the global "expat" picture spans a spectrum, from highly paid professionals on corporate assignments to people fleeing war with no choice. The two groups face very different systems, but both swell the count of people living outside their home country.
Source: UNHCR (via UN Refugee Agency Switzerland) - Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2024 (2025)
8. 42.7 million people held refugee status worldwide
Of the people displaced across borders, 42.7 million held formal refugee status at the end of 2024, per the UNHCR Global Trends report. A further 8.4 million were asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their claims.
Refugees are a distinct legal category from voluntary migrants, with protections under international law but also tight constraints on movement and work. The gap between the 42.7 million refugees and the 304 million total international migrants shows that the large majority of people abroad moved for work, family, or study rather than protection.
For policymakers and travelers alike, the distinction shapes everything from entry rights to the documents you carry. Refugee status, work visas, and residency permits each come with their own day-counting and renewal rules.
Source: UNHCR (via UN Refugee Agency Switzerland) - Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2024 (2025)
9. 18.1 million Americans now identify as digital nomads
The expat population increasingly includes people who never formally emigrate. MBO Partners found that 18.1 million American workers described themselves as digital nomads in 2024, a 4.7% rise year over year and growth of more than 147% since 2019. That works out to roughly 11% of the US workforce.
Most stay domestic: 51% planned to travel only within the US, while 49% planned at least some international travel and just 7% expected to spend the full year abroad. Even so, the international slice represents millions of Americans cycling through foreign countries on tourist and nomad visas.
This is the fastest-growing and most legally ambiguous expat segment. Remote workers on tourist visas often blur the line between visitor and resident, which is exactly where overstay and tax-residency risk concentrates. We break the broader trend down further in our digital nomad statistics for 2026.
Source: MBO Partners - 2024 Digital Nomads Trends Report (2024)
10. Migrants are 3.7% of the world but concentrate in a few destinations
The 3.7% global migrant share masks extreme concentration. UN data reported by Destatis confirms the 304 million figure, but those people cluster heavily in a small set of countries. The United States hosts the largest absolute number, while Gulf states like the UAE hit foreign-born shares above 90%.
Europe and North America together absorb the bulk of the world's migrants, and a handful of corridors, such as India to the Gulf and Mexico to the US, carry an outsized share of total flows. Migration is global in scale but regional in pattern.
For anyone managing life across borders, this concentration is practical news. The countries that host the most expats also run the most developed, and most enforced, compliance systems, from the Schengen 90/180 rule to the US substantial presence test.
What these numbers tell us
Taken together, the data shows a global expat population that is large, growing, and structurally permanent. At 304 million international migrants, the world has roughly doubled its cross-border population since 1990. The drivers are durable: labor demand in rich economies, $685 billion in annual remittances pulling families abroad, record displacement from conflict, and a new layer of 18 million-plus digital nomads in the US alone.
For people living this reality, the headline is complexity. The same forces swelling these numbers are pushing governments to enforce residency, tax, and visa rules harder. A foreign-born population at record size in the US, near-total foreign majorities in the Gulf, and overloaded asylum systems all point one way: tighter tracking of who is where, for how long.
The trajectory is clear. International migration keeps rising in absolute terms, remote work keeps blurring the line between traveler and resident, and the compliance burden keeps shifting onto individuals. The expat of 2026 is less likely to be a single-country transplant and more likely to be moving across several jurisdictions a year.
The global expat population is no longer a niche, it is 304 million people and counting, and staying compliant across borders is now a mainstream problem rather than an edge case.
How Staywise helps you navigate this landscape
These numbers describe a world where more people than ever split their lives across multiple countries. For the millions of working migrants and digital nomads inside that 304 million figure, the hard part is not moving, it is staying compliant once you arrive. Days in the Schengen area, 183-day tax-residency thresholds, and visa expiry dates all run on the calendar, and miscounting any of them carries real consequences.
Staywise (the visa compliance app for digital nomads) automates exactly this. It tracks your days across every country you visit, runs the Schengen 90/180 and 183-day calculations for you, and sends overstay alerts 7, 3, and 1 day before any limit. Passport details stay on your device for privacy, and the in-app AI assistant answers visa questions in plain English. Free trial, then annual subscription. See App Store for current pricing.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many expats are there in the world in 2026?
There were 304 million international migrants worldwide in 2024, equal to 3.7% of the global population, according to UN DESA data reported by Germany's Federal Statistical Office. That figure has roughly doubled since 1990, when about 154 million people lived outside their country of birth. The UN counts anyone living outside their country of birth as an international migrant, which is the broadest and most reliable global measure of the expat population.
Which country has the most expats?
The United States hosts the largest absolute number of immigrants, with a record 47.8 million in 2023 per Pew Research Center, around 14.3% of its population. By share, the United Arab Emirates leads the world: Pew reported 94% of its population was foreign-born as of 2020. India sends the most people abroad of any country, with over 18.5 million emigrants in 2024 according to UN DESA estimates.
How much money do expats send home each year?
Officially recorded remittances to low- and middle-income countries reached an estimated $685 billion in 2024, growing 5.8% over the prior year, according to the World Bank. India was the top recipient at $129 billion, followed by Mexico at $68 billion and China at $48 billion. These flows are larger than foreign direct investment and official development aid to those countries combined, and the true total is higher once informal transfers are counted.
How has the expat population changed over time?
The number of international migrants has roughly doubled since 1990, rising from about 154 million to 304 million in 2024, per UN DESA data. The share of world population grew more slowly, from 2.9% to 3.7%, because global population also rose. Forced displacement set a record of around 123 million people at the end of 2024 according to UNHCR, and US-based digital nomads grew more than 147% between 2019 and 2024 per MBO Partners.
Where do these expat statistics come from?
The figures in this report come from primary sources. Global migrant totals are from UN DESA, reported by Germany's Federal Statistical Office. US immigrant data is from Pew Research Center and the Census Bureau. Remittance figures are from the World Bank, labour-force data from the International Labour Organization, displacement data from UNHCR, and digital nomad estimates from MBO Partners. Each statistic is dated to the actual year of the underlying data.
Related guides
- Digital Nomad Statistics 2026
- Most Popular Nomad Destinations 2026
- Tax Residency Statistics for Expats 2026
- Expat Tax Statistics 2026
About Staywise
Staywise is the visa compliance app for digital nomads. Built by nomads for nomads, it tracks your days across every country automatically, alerts you before overstays, and keeps passport details on your device for privacy. The in-app AI assistant answers visa questions in plain English. Available on iOS.
Important: This content is informational and does not constitute legal, tax, or immigration advice. Visa rules, tax regulations, and entry requirements change frequently and vary by individual circumstances. Always verify current requirements with official government sources or a qualified professional before making travel decisions. Staywise tracks your days and surfaces compliance information, but final responsibility for compliance rests with the traveler.