News Release

Estimates of global migration

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Estimated Migration Flows for 2010-2015: The New Method (Left) Captures Flows More Fully than A

image: Estimated migration flows for 2010-2015: The new method (left) captures flows more fully than a previous method (right). view more 

Credit: Image courtesy of Jonathan J. Azose and Adrian E. Raftery.

A method for estimating the numbers of migrants between pairs of countries, based on data from the United Nations, suggests that in each five-year time period since 1990 approximately 1.2% of the global population, or up to 87 million people, migrate, and that around one-quarter of all migrations represent return migrations to individuals' countries of birth.

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Article #17-22334: "Estimation of emigration, return migration, and transit migration between all pairs of countries," by Jonathan J. Azose and Adrian E. Raftery.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Adrian E. Raftery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA; e-mail: raftery@uw.edu; Jonathan Azose, Google, Seattle, WA; email: jazose@gmail.com


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