How European and U.S. unauthorized immigrant populations compare
The size of Europe’s unauthorized immigrant population in 2017 was less than half the number in the United States.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
The size of Europe’s unauthorized immigrant population in 2017 was less than half the number in the United States.
The number of people living in sub-Saharan Africa who were forced to leave their homes due to conflict reached a new high of 18.4 million in 2017, up sharply from 14.1 million in 2016 – the largest regional increase of forcibly displaced people in the world.
Worldwide, an estimated $582 billion was sent by migrants to relatives in their home countries in 2015, a 2% decline from 2014.
More than 60 million people are displaced from their homes as of the end of 2015, the highest number of displaced people since World War II.
Although Europe is struggling to manage the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflicts in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere, the countries facing the biggest refugee impacts are the ones closest to the fighting.
Hundreds of thousands of mostly young refugees are fleeing into Europe, where most countries have rapidly aging (and sometimes shrinking) populations.
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