The numbers of people migrating globally is now outpacing the world’s population growth, according to a new study.

The number of people living outside their country of birth rose by 83 per cent between 1990 and 2020, from 153 million to 281 million.

Over the same period, migration outpaced growth in the global population, which rose by 47 per cent to 7.8 billion people, according to a study by the Washington-based think tank the Pew Research Center.

“The number of Buddhist and Muslim migrants more than doubled during this period. Other groups of migrants grew more modestly – Christians by 80 per cent, the religiously unaffiliated by 67 per cent, Hindus by 48 per cent and Jews by 28 per cent,” the study said.

The religious composition of the global migrant population, however, has not changed dramatically from a few decades ago. This is largely because the sizes of each migrant stock were so unequal in 1990.

Even though the migrant populations have grown at different rates in recent decades, their mix in 2020 still reflects the large differences in their initial sizes in 1990.

Several major political and economic events in recent decades had big impacts on the migration patterns of individual religious groups.

“For example, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 caused a surge of Jewish migrants to Israel and the United States. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that took effect in 1994 contributed to agricultural unemployment in Mexico that sent millions of Christian migrants to the US,” the study said.

The Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, pushed millions of Muslims into countries including Turkey, Germany and Lebanon.

Since 1990, the migrant populations in each destination region have grown at different rates, the study revealed.

The rate of growth since 1990 has been greatest in the Middle East-North Africa region (up 185 per cent). The Asia-Pacific region has had the smallest increase (up 38 per cent), it said.

“Most major religions have seen their migrant numbers rise in every region. But some groups have seen a decline in their migrant shares (the per centage their religion makes up of all migrants in the region),” the study says.

Migrants are defined in the study as people who are living outside their country (or in some cases, territory) of birth, regardless of when they moved or how far. Many have stayed in the region in which they were born.

In the Asia-Pacific region, the total number of international migrants grew by 38 per cent between 1990 and 2020, reaching 55 million in 2020.

The region’s overall population – which in 1990 was already the world’s largest – grew 43 per cent in this period, to 4.5 billion.

Migrants made up 1 per cent of the region’s population in both 1990 and in 2020. Growth was concentrated between 2005 and 2020, driven by large increases from Syria, Myanmar (also called Burma) and China.

The total number of international migrants living in Europe has risen by 74 per cent since 1990, approaching 87 million in 2020. The region’s overall population grew by just 3 per cent over this period, to nearly 750 million.

As a result, migrants jumped from 7 per cent of the region’s total population in 1990 to 12 per cent in 2020. And migrants from every major religious group increased in number.

Migrants from Russia and Ukraine were most numerous in both 1990 and 2020. But the largest growth in numbers came from Poland and Romania.

In the Latin America-Caribbean region. international migrants have more than doubled over the past three decades, reaching nearly 15 million in 2020 (up 107 per cent). During this time, the region’s overall population increased by 47 per cent to 652 million.

Still, migrants made up just 2 per cent of residents in the Latin America-Caribbean region in 2020, about the same as in 1990. 

Much of the growth in the migrant population occurred between 2015 and 2020, as many Venezuelans escaped economic and political instability at home to settle in nearby countries.

International migrants in the Middle East and North Africa have nearly tripled since 1990 (up 185 per cent), reaching 43 million in 2020, while the region’s overall population almost doubled to 436 million (up 97 per cent).

Migrants made up 7 per cent of the region’s population in 1990 and 10 per cent in 2020.

Roughly a quarter of the region’s migrants were born in India – the top origin country for several religious groups coming to the region.

Millions of others came from the Palestinian territories, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Syria. Some migration in the region is circular, with migrants moving back and forth to work and return home.

In North America international migrants have more than doubled since 1990 (up 113 per cent), approaching 59 million in 2020.

Overall, 374 million people lived in the region as of 2020, up 36 per cent since 1990.

Migrants made up 10 per cent of North America’s population in 1990 and 16 per cent in 2020.

Most of these migrants live in the U.S. and Canada, which, when combined, have more migrants than all of Asia and the Pacific.

Nearly 12 million migrants living in North America were born in Mexico, roughly triple the number from the next-largest origin country, India.

The migrant population of sub-Saharan Africa increased by 67 per cent between 1990 and 2020 and now comprises more than 22 million individuals. Over the past three decades, the region’s overall population more than doubled to 1.1 billion, making it the second-most populous region in the world.

Migrants made up 3 per cent of the regional population in 1990 and 2 per cent in 2020.

Movement in sub-Saharan Africa has been driven by people fleeing armed conflicts and other forms of strife, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.

“But there has also been return migration to some countries. For example, the number of Rwandan and Mozambiquan migrants has declined after civil wars there ended in the early 1990s,” the Pew study said.

“Since 1990, the religious composition of migrants living in sub-Saharan Africa has been fairly stable.”

Read the full report here: How global migration changed from 1990-2020 | Pew Research Center