Japan rose from ninth to second as Vietnamese emigrants' home
Rank of countries by people born in Viet Nam living there, mid-2010 and mid-2024. UN DESA estimates.
- 1. One in ten in Japan will be foreign by 2070
- 2. Japan's foreign residents have doubled since 2012, passing 4 million
- 3. Jakarta, not Tokyo, is the world's largest city
- 4. Two in three newly licensed UK doctors qualified abroad
- 5. Iran dropped from top refugee host to fifth in 2025
- 6. Egypt has more asylum seekers than Germany, Spain and Italy
- 7. Chad rose from 15th to 6th among refugee hosts
- 8. Türkiye overtook France in hosting foreign students
- 9. Uzbekistan's university enrolment rose from 8% to 57%
- 10. Japan rose from ninth to second as Vietnamese emigrants' home
- 11. South Korea turned from student sender into student host
- 12. Nigeria became the third-biggest sender of students abroad
Vietnamese-born people in Japan rose from 40,627 in 2010 to 589,874 in 2024, second only to the US.
Share of Viet Nam's 3.69 million emigrants living in Japan, Taiwan or South Korea in 2024, up from 8% in 2010.
The US share in 2024, down from 54%: Vietnamese emigration now runs to Asia's ageing workforces, not the post-war West.
the numbers & method
| 2010 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 1,256,778 | 1,434,631 |
| Japan | 40,627 | 589,874 |
| Australia | 203,426 | 294,435 |
| Taiwan | 87,633 | 263,078 |
| South Korea | 56,508 | 260,609 |
| Canada | 167,113 | 179,690 |
| Germany | 91,671 | 140,939 |
| France | 119,051 | 116,008 |
| Czechia | 48,431 | 29,508 |
Claim types Estimate · Interpretation
UN DESA Population Division, International Migrant Stock 2024 (POP/DB/MIG/Stock/Rev.2024), file 'stock by sex, destination and origin', both sexes, mid-year estimates, origin Viet Nam. Persons, 2010 → 2024: United States 1,256,778 → 1,434,631; Japan 40,627 → 589,874; Australia 203,426 → 294,435; Taiwan 87,633 → 263,078; Republic of Korea 56,508 → 260,609; Canada 167,113 → 179,690; Germany 91,671 → 140,939; France 119,051 → 116,008; Czechia 48,431 → 29,508. Japan 2015: 124,232; 2020: 437,740. Total migrants born in Viet Nam (file 'stock by sex and origin'): 2,339,779 (2010), 3,693,537 (2024). Ranks, multiples and shares are progrss calculations. The nine rows are 2010's nine biggest destinations, so their positions match world ranks in 2010 and, for the top eight, in 2024; Czechia is 12th worldwide in 2024 (China 88,254, Cambodia 41,357 and Bangladesh 37,076 rank 9–11). Migrant stock counts people born abroad (or, where birthplace is not recorded, foreign citizens) and includes students and temporary workers; UN DESA figures are estimates. Takeaway 3's reading is an interpretation. Licence: the xlsx header states CC BY 3.0 IGO, while UN website terms allow personal non-commercial use only; not offered for licensing until resolved. Read from the UN DESA xlsx itself (Table 1, both sexes) through the progrss vault's file reader; every cell above read directly from the Viet Nam-origin rows. 2010 ranking check: after Czechia (48,431) and Japan (40,627) come Cambodia 40,384 and China 34,576, so Japan was 9th.
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