Ranked: The Countries Sending the Most Remittances Abroad

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June 30, 2024 Graphics/Design:

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Ranked: The Countries Sending the Most Remittances Abroad

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

We chart the top 10 countries by the most remittances sent, in current U.S. dollars, based on 2022 data from Knomad.

Specifically, these transfer totals shown represent personal remittances, or money sent between residents in one country to another, including personal transfers and compensation for work done abroad. It does not include, and is separate from, foreign investment.

Top 10 Countries by Personal Remittances Sent (2000-2022)

The U.S. has consistently been home to the world’s largest immigrant population (45 million people in 2022), a key reason for topping the ranks of sending money abroad over the last two decades.

As a result, countries with largest diasporas in the U.S.—including Indian, the Philippines, and Mexico—tend to be the biggest recipients of these flows.

Top Countries Sending Money Abroad2000Top Countries Sending Money Abroad (2022)2022 🇺🇸 U.S.$35B🇺🇸 U.S.$82B 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia$15B🇦🇪 UAE$40B 🇦🇪 UAE$14B🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia$39B 🇩🇪 Germany$9B🇨🇭 Switzerland$34B 🇨🇭 Switzerland$6B🇨🇳 China$18B 🇬🇧 UK$5B🇰🇼 Kuwait$18B 🇫🇷 France$5B🇩🇪 Germany$17B 🇰🇷 South Korea$4B🇱🇺 Luxembourg$16B 🇮🇱 Israel$3B🇳🇱 Netherlands$15B 🇱🇺 Luxembourg$3B🇫🇷 France$15B
Note: Figures rounded.

Similarly, immigrants make up nearly 80% of the population in the UAE (ranked #2 with $80 billion sent), the highest proportion of any country in the world.

Setting the countries sending the most money abroad side-by-side with those receiving money from abroad, reveals broad geographic patterns. Advanced economies (in North America and Europe) are the biggest senders to developing economies in Asia and Africa.

Finally, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Luxembourg are considered offshore financial centers and can be used as intermediary stops in the movement of money through the world.

Why are personal remittances important anyway? To start, a staggering one billion people (roughly one out of eight people in the world) depend on money sent back home. In 2022, 200 million migrant workers sent $800 billion to their families in home

Visualizing the Top Countries, by Mobile Data Usage

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June 2, 2024 Graphics/Design:

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Visualizing the Top Countries, by Mobile Data Usage

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Global mobile data traffic per smartphone is forecast to hit 42 gigabytes per month by 2027—a staggering 16-fold increase compared to 2017.

This surge coincides with a rising number of internet users worldwide, in particular among middle-income countries. Notably, between 2018 and 2022, India saw a 170% increase in internet users alone.

The above graphic shows the countries with the highest mobile data usage around the world, based on data from the World Bank’s Digital Progress and Trends Report.

Which Countries Use the Most Mobile Data?

Here are the top 10 countries worldwide based on their monthly mobile data consumption:

RankCountryMonthly Mobile Data Usage per Capita
(Gigabytes, GB) 1🇨🇼 Curaçao131.3 2🇰🇼 Kuwait83.9 3🇸🇷 Suriname72.7 4🇫🇮 Finland59.1 5🇱🇻 Latvia52.7 6🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia44.2 7🇪🇪 Estonia42.4 8🇧🇭 Bahrain41.6 9🇦🇹 Austria35.1 10🇱🇹 Lithuania32.1

Data as of 2022.

The island nation of Curaçao ranks first overall, with 131.3 gigabytes of monthly mobile data usage per capita.

With a population of just 193,000, Curaçao surpasses all other nations likely due to a combination of factors. This includes an influx of over one million tourist arrivals in 2022, competitive mobile data plans, and a low penetration of fixed-line telecommunication systems and broadband internet.

For instance, in 2021, just 28 out of 100 people used fixed-line networks, while 88 out of 100 people used cellular-mobile services. Furthermore, the country boasts among the fastest and most reliable internet connections in the Caribbean thanks to its concentration of data centers and fiber optic cable infrastructure.

Following in second place is oil-rich Kuwait. In recent years, the country’s telecom industry has significantly improved, with 5G networks reaching roughly 97% of the population. Furthermore, the Kuwait government invested heavily in mobile platforms that allow people to settle traffic fines or schedule court dates via mobile apps.

Like Kuwait, Middle Eastern nations of Saudi Arabia

MENA: Our new outlook and upgraded coverage for a region at a crossroads Copy

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The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is at a crossroads, both economically and politically. A war ravages the Levant, inflicting immense human suffering and threatening to boil over into a wider regional conflict. But despite the war, the MENA economy remains one of the world’s most promising. Regional powers, such as Saudi Arabia, are pushing for a political settlement to the conflict that would guarantee longer-term peace and stability. Riyadh and neighboring capitals are impatient to continue sowing the seeds of their countries’ future economic success: In 2022, the MENA economy grew at the fastest rate since the early 2000s, and the non-oil sector’s share of GDP among Gulf countries was up 9 percentage points from a decade ago. 

Our new outlook on the region

To reflect the MENA region’s growing clout, this month we penned a fresh outlook for the region’s economy over 2024–2028. The report is free and covers our Consensus Forecasts for GDP growth, oil and non-oil output, inflation and the fiscal balance. 

Our upgraded coverage of the region

In addition, this month we also upgraded our coverage of Qatar and Kuwait, two of the region’s most promising economies. Our coverage now features dedicated written analysis for both countries on high-frequency economic data―written by our in-house team of economists―including GDP, purchasing managers’ index readings, industrial production, oil production, and inflation. As well as this, our coverage now includes quarterly forecasts for GDP growth and inflation for both Qatar and Kuwait, as well as monthly data for oil production, industrial production and purchasing managers’ index readings. Finally, our coverage contains new detailed charts and panelist breakdowns for additional indicators for both countries, including private consumption, total investment, public debt, exports and imports.    

 

Insight from our panelists

On the outlook for regional GDP growth, analysts at Fitch Solutions said: 

“The MENA region’s growth will slightly accelerate from 1.9% in 2023 to 2.4% in 2024 but face major headwinds from the Israel-Hamas war, slower growth in key economies, and the Red Sea crisis. The GCC will see growth accelerate from 0.6% to 2.6% in 2024, driven by normalisation of oil production and strong non-hydrocarbon sector performance, particularly due to investment in diversification efforts. Growth