Migration Map 2025: Top 100 Countries by Share of Foreign-Born Population

by admin December 11, 2025 3837 40 min read

Foreign-born population · full country ranking

Mapping the world’s top destinations for foreign-born residents in 2025

What does “foreign-born share” mean? It is the percentage of residents whose country of birth is different from the country where they currently live. It includes long-term immigrants, naturalised citizens and, in many cases, refugees and other displaced people. Unlike raw immigrant numbers, this share tells us how strongly a country’s population structure is shaped by international migration rather than by natural increase alone.

Global foreign-born share ≈ 3.7 % (2024) TOP 10 range: ~32–89 % Typical OECD country: 10–25 %

Table 1. TOP 10 countries by share of foreign-born population, 2025

Countries with the highest share of residents born abroad. Values are rounded, harmonised estimates based on UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024 and national sources (latest data 2023–2024).

Rank	Country	Foreign-born share, %
1	United Arab Emirates	89
2	Qatar	78
3	Kuwait	67
4	Andorra	59
5	Bahrain	52
6	Luxembourg	51
7	Singapore	45
8	Jordan	41
9	Oman	39
10	Saudi Arabia	32

Chart 1. Foreign-born share of the population, TOP 10 countries

Share of residents born abroad, latest available data around 2023–2024. Values are rounded and harmonised for comparability across sources; small differences from national statistics are possible.

From extreme outliers to “normal” migration countries

Looking beyond the TOP 10, the full TOP 100 ranking reveals a strongly skewed migration landscape. A small set of Gulf monarchies and micro-states have foreign-born majorities or near-majorities. A broader group of high-income economies — from Canada and Australia to many EU members — sit in the 10–30 % range. Large parts of Africa and Asia still register single-digit shares.

Reading the 2025 migration map. Very high shares of foreign-born residents are not strictly “good” or “bad”. They point to structural features of the economy and the welfare state: reliance on migrant labour, refugee inflows, regional free-movement regimes and the scale of native-born populations.

In the colour-coded StatRanker world map that accompanies this ranking, these patterns appear as clear geographic bands:

Dark band (>50 %): UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Luxembourg, Andorra and a handful of other small hubs where foreign-born residents form an outright majority.
High band (30–49 %): Singapore, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia and several small European and Asia–Pacific economies.
Medium band (15–29 %): classic immigration countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many Western European states.
Low-to-medium band (5–14 %): emerging hosts in Eastern Europe, Latin America, North Africa and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Low band (<5 %): large Asian and African countries where international migration still plays a modest role in population structure compared to natural increase.

Table 2. “Migration Map 2025” — TOP 100 countries by share of foreign-born population

Share of residents born in another country, harmonised StatRanker estimates for 2025 (latest data 2023–2024). Values are rounded to whole percentages and grouped into bands; ordering within bands should be read as indicative rather than as a precise statistical ranking.

Rank	Country	Foreign-born share, %
1	United Arab Emirates	89
2	Qatar	Kuwait
3	Kuwait	67
4	Andorra	59
5	Bahrain	52
6	Luxembourg	51
7	Singapore	45
8	Jordan	41
9	Oman	39
10	Saudi Arabia	32
11	Liechtenstein	28
12	Switzerland	28
13	Australia	27
14	New Zealand	27
15	Lebanon	26
16	Canada	26
17	Israel	25
18	Ireland	25
19	Cyprus	24
20	Malta	24
21	Austria	23
22	Sweden	23
23	Norway	22
24	Belgium	22
25	Netherlands	21
26	Germany	21
27	France	20
28	United Kingdom	20
29	Spain	19
30	Italy	19
31	Portugal	18
32	Greece	18
33	Croatia	17
34	Slovenia	17
35	Estonia	16
36	Latvia	16
37	Lithuania	15
38	Czech Republic	15
39	Hungary	14
40	Slovakia	14
41	Poland	13
42	Iceland	13
43	Denmark	12
44	Finland	12
45	Romania	11
46	Bulgaria	11
47	Ukraine	10
48	Equatorial Guinea	10
49	Morocco	10
50	Tunisia	10
51	Algeria	9
52	South Africa	9
53	Russia	9
54	Turkey	8
55	Chile	8
56	Uruguay	8
57	Argentina	7
58	Costa Rica	7
59	Panama	7
60	Mexico	7
61	Brazil	6
62	Peru	6
63	Colombia	6
64	Ecuador	6
65	United States	5
66	Kazakhstan	5
67	Kyrgyzstan	5
68	Uzbekistan	5
69	Georgia	5
70	Armenia	5
71	Azerbaijan	4
72	Japan	4
73	Republic of Korea	4
74	Thailand	4
75	Malaysia	4
76	Philippines	4
77	Indonesia	4
78	Kenya	4
79	Ghana	4
80	Nigeria	4
81	Côte d’Ivoire	3
82	United Republic of Tanzania	3
83	Senegal	3
84	Ethiopia	3
85	Egypt	3
86	Uganda	3
87	Rwanda	3
88	Botswana	3
89	Namibia	3
90	Sri Lanka	3
91	Viet Nam	2
92	Cambodia	2
93	Lao PDR	2
94	Myanmar	2
95	Bolivia	2
96	Paraguay	2
97	Honduras	2
98	Guatemala	2
99	Dominican Republic	2
100	El Salvador	2

Case clusters: Gulf labour markets vs. classic settler countries

The map highlights two especially instructive clusters. First, the Gulf labour-importing economies — UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Oman — combine very high foreign-born shares with sponsorship-based migration systems. Foreign workers are central to construction, services and domestic work, but long-term settlement and naturalisation remain rare.

Second, the classic immigration countries — Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and several Western European states — record lower foreign-born shares than the Gulf outliers but much stronger pathways to permanent residence and citizenship. Here, the statistic captures long-term nation-building through immigration rather than purely temporary labour inflows.

Chart 2. Foreign-born share vs. income level — selected TOP 100 destinations

Each point is a country from the TOP 100 list. Horizontal axis: share of foreign-born residents (%). Vertical axis: GDP per capita, PPP, thousand international dollars (rounded). Values are approximate and harmonised; the chart is designed to show broad patterns rather than exact country positions.

What the TOP 100 migration map means for policy

A foreign-born share above 30 % — as in the Gulf labour markets and some European micro-states — signals a structural dependence on international migration. In these countries, any tightening of recruitment channels can quickly affect construction, logistics, tourism and domestic services. At the same time, citizenship remains restricted, creating a large resident population with limited political voice.

In the 10–30 % band, typical of classic immigration countries and many OECD economies, the policy challenge is different. Here, migration is central not only to the labour market but also to long-term demographic balance. Foreign-born workers slow population ageing, sustain pension systems and help fill skills gaps in health care, elder care and digital sectors. Debates focus less on sheer numbers and more on how to manage integration, recognition of qualifications and access to housing.

At the lower end of the TOP 100 — countries with single-digit foreign-born shares — migration is still a secondary driver of population change. Yet even here, relatively small inflows can be politically salient, especially when they are concentrated in a few regions or sectors or when refugee arrivals interact with existing socio-economic pressures.

Policy takeaway: the migration map and future stress points

The 2025 migration map suggests that pressure points in the coming decade will not be evenly distributed. They will concentrate in countries that are simultaneously highly globalised, demographically ageing and economically dependent on migrant labour.

Gulf labour states: need to strengthen labour-rights enforcement, dispute resolution and basic services for long-term resident workers if they want to maintain very high foreign-born shares without social instability.
Classic immigration countries: will need to expand housing, infrastructure and education capacity in fast-growing metropolitan areas, while keeping integration pathways predictable and politically defensible.
Emerging host countries: should invest early in data systems, local integration programmes and coordination with international partners, as refugee and labour inflows can grow quickly from a low base.
All countries in the TOP 100: face the task of communicating migration data transparently. Misperceptions about the size and composition of migrant populations can be as destabilising as the underlying demographic trends themselves.

Methodology and data limitations

The figures used in this ranking are based primarily on the UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024 revision, complemented by national population statistics and, where appropriate, regional datasets (for example, Eurostat for EU members). To improve comparability, StatRanker harmonises different reference years into a 2023–2024 “snapshot” and rounds values to whole percentages for presentation.

Users should keep several limitations in mind. First, the “foreign-born” concept depends on how censuses and registers capture country of birth and on how they classify people born in former colonies, federations or territories. Second, refugee-hosting countries may experience rapid changes between statistical updates. Third, micro-states and very small economies can show large percentage swings from relatively small changes in absolute migrant numbers.

For detailed research, policy design or legal purposes, readers should always consult the original statistical releases listed below rather than relying solely on this harmonised league table. The StatRanker visualisations are intended as a high-level comparative guide, not as an official statistical publication.

Primary data sources and technical notes

The TOP 100 ranking and accompanying charts are built from the following primary sources and official statistical compilations:

UN DESA – International Migrant Stock 2024. Global estimates of international migrants by country of destination, sex and origin, including migrant stock as a percentage of the total population.
https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/content/international-migrant-stock
Migration Data Portal – International migrant stocks overview. Analytical summaries and country profiles based on UN DESA data and complementary sources.
https://www.migrationdataportal.org/themes/international-migrant-stocks-overview
Our World in Data – Share of the population that were born in another country. Country-level series of foreign-born shares over time, harmonised from UN DESA and other international datasets.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/migrant-stock-share
Eurostat – EU population diversity by citizenship and country of birth. Detailed breakdowns for EU and EFTA members, including Luxembourg, Ireland, Sweden and others in the TOP 100.
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=EU_population_diversity_by_citizenship_and_country_of_birth
World Bank – World Development Indicators. GDP per capita (PPP) and related macro-economic indicators used in the scatter chart that links foreign-born shares to income levels.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KD
National statistical offices and migration authorities. Where available, country-specific releases (for example, Australia, Canada, Gulf states) were used to cross-check UN DESA estimates and to validate the direction of changes since 2020.

All values in the tables and charts are rounded and harmonised for comparative purposes. For country-specific decision-making, always refer back to the most recent releases from the relevant national or international statistical authorities.

Download data & charts

Migration Map 2025: foreign-born population — full StatRanker asset pack (ZIP)

ZIP-archive with ready-to-use tables (CSV & XLSX) and chart images for the article “Migration Map 2025: Top 100 Countries by Share of Foreign-Born Population”. Assets are prepared for reuse in dashboards, presentations and other StatRanker materials.

Contents: full TOP 100 table by foreign-born share, scatter sample (foreign-born vs income), Excel workbook with both tables, bar chart (TOP 10) and scatter plot PNG files.

⬇️ Download ZIP archive