Migration and Remittances Factbook 2016, 3rd edition, is the latest update of the popular 2008 and 2011 volumes. The factbook presents the numbers and facts behind the stories of international migration and remittances, drawing on authoritative, publicly available data. It provides a comprehensive picture of emigration, skilled emigration, immigration, and remittance flows for 214 countries and 15 country groups. Some interesting facts: More than 250 million people, or 3.4 percent of the world population, live outside their countries of birth. The volume of South-South migration stands at 38 percent of the total migrant stock, larger than South-North migration. Nine out of every ten international migrants is an economic migrant. Mexico-United States was the largest migration corridor in the world in 2013, followed by Russia-Ukraine, and Bangladesh-India.

Excluding refugees from the West Bank and Gaza, the number of refugees in 2014 was 14.4 million, or only 6 percent, of international migrants. Although the spotlight is on Europe, about 86 percent of refugees are hosted by developing countries such as Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Ethiopia. The top migrant-destination country is the United States, followed by Saudi Arabia, Germany, the Russian Federation, and the United Arab Emirates. The number of migrant workers as a share of population, however, is the highest in Qatar (91 percent), the United Arab Emirates (88 percent) and Kuwait (72 percent). Remittances provide a lifeline in many countries. Worldwide remittance flows are estimated to have exceeded $601 billion in 2015. Of that amount, developing countries are estimated to receive about $441 billion, more than three times the total of official aid.

India was the largest remittance-receiving country, with an estimated US$72 billion in 2015, followed by China (US$64 billion), and the Philippines (US$30 billion). Remittances amounted to 42 percent of GDP in Tajikistan, and they are larger than the revenue from the Suez Canal in the Arab Republic of Egypt, and larger than the revenue from tourism in Nepal. The factbook is also available online at the KNOMAD website (www.knomad.org). Book jacket.