Top 10 Countries With Immigrant Populations

The map above shows the percentage of immigrant populations per country. Rates of immigration are increasing in the world – with immigrants consisting of 12.1 per cent of the world’s population in 2005, compared to 13.2 per in 2015. Several studies have proven that immigrants have a high economic value to the country.

Below is a list the top 10 countries with the largest immigrant populations in terms of both relative and absolute numbers. The information comes from the UN’s Trends in International migrant stock 2015.

Top 10 countries with the largest total number of immigrants

1. United States – 46,627,102 (14.3% of country total and 19.8% of world total)
2. Germany – 12,005,690 (14.9% of country total and 4.9% of world total)
3. Russia – 11,643,276 (7.7% of country total and 4.8% of global total)
4. Saudi Arabia – 9,060,433 (31.4% of country total and 3.9% of world total)
5. United Kingdom – 8,543,120 (11.3% of country total and 3.7% of world total)
6. United Arab Emirates – 7,826,981 (83.7% of country total and 3.4% of world total)
7. France – 7,784,418 (11.1% of county total and 3.1% of world total)
8. Canada – 7,284,069 (20.7% of country total and 3.1% of world total)
9. Australia – 6,763,663 (27.7% of county total and 2.8% of world total)
10. Spain – 5,852,953 (14% of country total and 2.8% of world total)

Top 10 countries by relative share of the population made up of immigrants

1. Vatican City – 100% (800; <0.1% of world total)
2. United Arab Emirates (UAE) – 83.7% (7.8 million; 3.4% of world total)
3. Qatar – 73.8% (1.6 million; 0.7% of world total)
4. Kuwait – 70% (2.9 million; 1.3% of world total)
5. Monaco – 64.2% (21,000; <0.1% of world total)
6. Sint Maarten – 59.7% (27,000; <0.1% of world total)
7. Andorra – 56.9% (42,000; <0.1% of world total)
8. Bahrain – 54.7% (729,000; 0.3% of world total)
9. Brunei – 49.3% (206,000; 0.1% of world total)
10. Luxembourg – 43.3% (249,000; 0.1% of world total)

A few more facts from the data above shows:

• 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