There are about 281 million migrants in the world as of late 2020, according to the UN-related intergovernmental International Organization on Migration (IOM). This figure does not include internally displaced migrants within a country. This international migration represents about 3.6% of the world’s population. This figure was only 153 million in 1990, and before that, it is estimated to have been about 90 million back in 1970. The growth of the problem is part of the dirty underside of the treatment of the underdeveloped world, the spread of wars, and so on.
Most of the migrants are in Europe (87 million), Asia (86 million) and North America (59 million). However, relative to population, migrants are 22% of Oceania (mainly Australia), 16% of North America and 12% of Europe. Yet, over the last 20 years, it is Asia that has had the most growth in absolute terms, adding 37 million more people. Europe follows with 30 million more, North America 18 million, and Africa 10 million.
