plate 364 · 2024 data

Fewer Mexicans live abroad, yet Mexico receives far more money

Change in emigrants (UN estimates) and personal transfers received (IMF, US$), ten biggest of 140 reporting countries, 2015 to 2024.

People on the move
  1. 1. One in ten in Japan will be foreign by 2070
  2. 2. Japan's foreign residents have doubled since 2012, passing 4 million
  3. 3. Jakarta, not Tokyo, is the world's largest city
  4. 4. Two in three newly licensed UK doctors qualified abroad
  5. 5. Iran dropped from top refugee host to fifth in 2025
  6. 6. Egypt has more asylum seekers than Germany, Spain and Italy
  7. 7. Chad rose from 15th to 6th among refugee hosts
  8. 8. Türkiye overtook France in hosting foreign students
  9. 9. Uzbekistan's university enrolment rose from 8% to 57%
  10. 10. Japan rose from ninth to second as Vietnamese emigrants' home
  11. 11. South Korea turned from student sender into student host
  12. 12. Nigeria became the third-biggest sender of students abroad
  13. 13. Pakistanis abroad now send home more than Pakistan exports
  14. 14. More Syrian refugees returned in 2025 than in 2015–2024 combined
  15. 15. Burkina Faso's refugees abroad grew thirtyfold in six years
  16. 16. Nearly half of Mongolia now lives in its capital
  17. 17. 13 countries and Hong Kong became student hosts, not senders
  18. 18. Tijuana added almost as many domestic passengers as Mexico City
  19. 19. Most of East Asia's big cities lost people since 2020
  20. 20. 17 countries hold 100,000+ pending asylum claims, up from 5
  21. 21. Most Bangladeshi migrants now live in the Gulf, not India
  22. 22. The Gulf now hosts a quarter of Nepalis abroad
  23. 23. Fewer Mexicans live abroad, yet Mexico receives far more money
  24. 24. No country added more emigrants since 2015 than Venezuela
−4.8%

Mexico's emigrants fell from 12.18 million in 2015 to 11.60 million in 2024, the only fall among the ten biggest reporting recipients.

$25bn → $65bn

Personal transfers received by Mexico, 2015 to 2024: 2.6 times as much, from fewer people abroad.

About $5,600

Received per Mexican emigrant in 2024, against about $2,100 in 2015, in current dollars. India's emigrants grew 21% and its transfers doubled.

Source: IMF, Balance of Payments (personal transfers received) and UN DESA, International Migrant Stock 2024 (by origin), 2024
the numbers & method
Fewer Mexicans live abroad, yet Mexico receives far more money. Source: IMF, Balance of Payments (personal transfers received) and UN DESA, International Migrant Stock 2024 (by origin), 2024.
People abroad (%)Money sent home (%)
India21.398
Mexico-4.8156
Pakistan11.780
Philippines16.540
Egypt14.961
Bangladesh10.479
Nigeria54.07
Guatemala36.8235
Indonesia14.666
Morocco24.881

Claim types Fact · Estimate

Personal transfers received (credits), current US$: IMF Balance of Payments statistics, data portal update of 7 Nov 2026, as reported by each country, read from the IMF data portal via the progrss vault (vault rule GUIDELINES §4.11). Emigrants: UN DESA Population Division, International Migrant Stock 2024, migrant stock at mid-year by country of origin, both sexes (Estimate), read from the UN file via the progrss vault. Ten biggest recipients of personal transfers in 2024 among 140 countries with both measures in 2015 and 2024. Changes and per-emigrant figures are progrss calculations. Values, 2015 → 2024: Mexico 12.18 → 11.60 million emigrants, US$25.38 bn → 65.02 bn; India 15.28 → 18.53 million, 65.23 → 129.43 bn; Pakistan 6.19 → 6.92, 19.25 → 34.66; Philippines 6.00 → 6.99, 21.99 → 30.81; Egypt 4.19 → 4.82, 18.33 → 29.56; Bangladesh 7.88 → 8.71, 15.27 → 27.39; Nigeria 1.36 → 2.09, 20.41 → 21.81; Guatemala 1.07 → 1.46, 6.41 → 21.45; Indonesia 3.27 → 3.75, 9.45 → 15.70; Morocco 2.91 → 3.63, 6.90 → 12.51. Caveats: dollars are not adjusted for inflation; the UN stock counts people by country of birth or citizenship from host-country censuses and undercounts migrants without papers; people born abroad to Mexican parents also send money and are not emigrants; personal transfers leave out wages of border and seasonal workers. China and Viet Nam have no personal-transfers figure in this IMF series and are not ranked. Mexico's whole fall came between 2015 and 2020 (12.18 to 11.45 million); the stock rose again to 11.60 million by 2024. Dataset join: JOIN 16 in the progrss vault.

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