Migration trends in China
Asia
11.7M people from China have built lives abroad. That's 0.8% of the country population, spread across 141 different countries
1.4B
Population
1.6M
Immigrants
11.7M
Emigrants
−10.1M
Outflow
The #2 largest source of emigrants worldwide
Despite emigrants making up just 0.8% of those born in China
Top corridors
The largest migration routes in China
Where people move to
Where people come from
Key moments
How migration has changed since 1990
1990
486.5K immigrants · 4M emigrants
1995
- Rose into the 3 biggest countries by emigrants in Asia
- The foreign-born population passed 500K residents
2000
- The diaspora abroad passed 5M people
2015
- Surge of departures to South Korea — 366K people left
- The diaspora abroad passed 10M people
- The foreign-born population passed 1M residents
2020
- Surge of immigrants from Myanmar — 210.4K new arrivals
Today
- Since 1990: 1.1M more foreign-born residents and 7.7M more citizens living abroad