The World’s Biggest Diasporas [Infographic]
The biggest diaspora driven by conflict, however, is seen in a non-sovereign territory, as more than 45% of those born in Palestine currently reside abroad, according to the U.N. figures.
Katharina Buchholz
I am a Statista data journalist using charts to explain news topics.
The list of countries with the biggest share of the native-born population living in the diaspora reveals stories of war and displacement but also of economic stagnation and a lack of perspectives. While there are many reasons why someone might leave the place where they were born, small countries are most often affected by the phenomenon as they are inherently at a disadvantage when offering opportunities and chances to move within the country first.
In regions where small countries are common and remoteness is added as another factor, for example in the Caribbean or Oceania, living in the diaspora is the most widespread. Out of all sovereign countries with at least 750,000 inhabitants, Caribbean nation Guyana had the biggest share of its native-born population—36.4%—living abroad. Jamaica comes fifth at 28.6%. Taking into account independent countries of all sizes, island nations dominate the top ranks with up to half of their populations having settled in other countries. Polynesia was the region with the highest overall diaspora share in 2020, at 28.7%, followed by the Caribbean at 17.7%.
Another group which commonly appears among the countries with the biggest diasporas are those in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. After the collapse of communism in the early 1990s, many people left in search of better economic opportunity, for example to Western Europe. The region saw more turmoil and war in the 1990s, growing the size of diasporas. Bosnia and Herzegovina—which declared independence in 1991 during the fall of communist Yugoslavia and saw a bloody ethnic war in the aftermath—had 34% of its population living abroad in 2020. Albania ended more than forty years of communism and international isolation in 1992. Serious financial mismanagement and an ensuing civil war kept the country in dire straits throughout the 1990s and into the new millennium. Today, almost a third of the population lives abroad. More Eastern European nations and former Soviet Republics among the countries with the largest diasporas in the world are Moldova, Armenia, North Macedonia, Croatia and Kazakhstan.
Countries which are currently or have very recently been embroiled in war and conflict also make significant appearances on the list. Syria, a nation of around 28 million native-born people, now has eight million of them—or around 30%—living abroad. South Sudan, where a civil war officially ended in 2020, has a diaspora share of 21%. Countries that are severely mismanaged by their governments include Eritrea at an 18.5% diaspora share and Venezuela at 16.6%. Another continental Latin American country has an even bigger diaspora: El Salvador's civil war ended in 1992, but gang violence has prevailed—more than 20% of the nation now lives abroad.
The biggest diaspora driven by conflict, however, is seen in a non-sovereign territory, as more than 45% of those born in Palestine currently reside abroad, according to the U.N. figures.
Least developed nations most mobile
Some wealthy countries and territories also have highly mobile populations, for example the United Arab Emirates. Counting only native-born residents—a fraction of the more than nine million who reside in the country—produces a diaspora quota of more than 26%. In Hong Kong, where a third of residents are immigrants, the native-born population has moved away at a rate of more than 18%. In Western Europe, Portugal was the country with the biggest diaspora, followed by Ireland. Both countries have experienced low economic growth and opportunity. For comparison, the size of the native-born U.S. diaspora stood at only 1% in 2020.
Looking at global development strata, the world’s least developed countries saw the biggest exodus with their diasporas making up an average 12.5% of their native-born populations, way ahead of less developed and more developed countries at around 3-6% of people living abroad.
The UN population division calculates estimates of the residential population of countries and of global migrant stock, where 2020 is the latest available year. For migrants, the organization determines their status by country of birth if possible. If not, migrant status might be determined by citizenship, which can cause both an undercounting and an overcounting of migrants. In places where many foreign-born residents have gained citizenship, the number of migrants will be an underestimation. In cases where native-born people do not automatically receive citizenship, which can happen among refugee populations but also in countries with restrictive laws, the number of migrants would be overestimated.
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Charted by Statista
I am a senior data journalist at Statista where I use infographics to cover news topics with a focus on politics and policy, viewing current affairs through an international lens. After earning my masters’ degree in journalism from the University of Colorado, I have worked for newspapers and reporting projects in the U.S. and Germany, giving me a unique, transatlantic perspective. I believe all news topics can benefit from a little dose of data. As a contributor, I intent to cover issues as wide-ranging as gender equality, climate change, labor and immigration – all with the help of relevant statistics and insightful visualizations.
Source: Forbes