The map above shows countries based on the percentage share of their population who are immigrants. As you can see the numbers vary widely by country.
Below we list the top 10 countries with the largest immigrant populations in terms of both relative and absolute numbers. The data comes from the UN’s Trends in International migrant stock 2015.
Top 10 countries by relative share of the population made up of immigrants
- Vatican City – 100% (800; <0.1% of world total)
- United Arab Emirates (UAE) – 83.7% (7.8 million; 3.4% of world total)
- Qatar – 73.8% (1.6 million; 0.7% of world total)
- Kuwait – 70% (2.9 million; 1.3% of world total)
- Monaco – 64.2% (21,000; <0.1% of world total)
- Sint Maarten – 59.7% (27,000; <0.1% of world total)
- Andorra – 56.9% (42,000; <0.1% of world total)
- Bahrain – 54.7% (729,000; 0.3% of world total)
- Brunei – 49.3% (206,000; 0.1% of world total)
- Luxembourg – 43.3% (249,000; 0.1% of world total)
In addition to the countries listed above, the following territories also have immigrant populations above 50%: American Samoa (71.2%), Caribbean Netherlands (65.9%), Falkland Islands (62.1%), US Virgin Islands (59.3%), Macau (58.8%), Isle of Man (52.0%), Channel Islands (51.0%).
Top 10 countries with the largest total number of immigrants
- United States – 46,627,102 (14.3% of country total and 19.8% of world total)
- Germany – 12,005,690 (14.9% of country total and 4.9% of world total)
- Russia – 11,643,276 (7.7% of country total and 4.8% of global total)
- Saudi Arabia – 9,060,433 (31.4% of country total and 3.9% of world total)
- United Kingdom – 8,543,120 (11.3% of country total and 3.7% of world total)
- United Arab Emirates – 7,826,981 (83.7% of country total and 3.4% of world total)
- France – 7,784,418 (11.1% of county total and 3.1% of world total)
- Canada – 7,284,069 (20.7% of country total and 3.1% of world total)
- Australia – 6,763,663 (27.7% of county total and 2.8% of world total)
- Spain – 5,852,953 (14% of country total and 2.8% of world total)
A few more interesting facts the data above reveals:
- 1 in 5 immigrants live in the United States
- There are more immigrants living in the US than in the next four countries combined
- Only the UAE appears in both lists
- If birthright citizens in the US were counted as immigrants, then the total immigrant population would increase to 80-85 million
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Clark Beattie says
The UAE numbers are misleading because there are very few actual immigrants in the sense of people who can live in country permanently. You need a residency visa based on your employment or you purchase property with a limited residency visa the first case is renewable every three years and ceases wihen your employment tenure ends.
Whereas in Canada an immigrant first gets landed status and then can qualify for citizenship. At that point I would consider someone to be an actual immigrant. In the UAE there are very few people granted a permanent residency and even less get citizenship.