Migration trends in Colombia
Latin America
3.7M people from Colombia have built lives abroad. That's 6.9% of the country population, spread across 57 different countries
52.9M
Population
3M
Immigrants
3.7M
Emigrants
−612.5K
Outflow
1 in every 15 people born in Colombia now lives abroad
The #22 largest source of emigrants worldwide
Top corridors
The largest migration routes in Colombia
Where people move to
Where people come from
Key moments
How migration has changed since 1990
1990
96K immigrants · 1M emigrants
1995
- The foreign-born population passed 100K residents
2005
- Surge of departures to Spain — 150.2K people left
2010
- An accelerating exodus — the diaspora abroad grew by 40%
- Surge of departures to Ecuador — 174.3K people left
2020
- Became the biggest destination for immigrants in Latin America
- Surge of immigrants from Venezuela — 1.8M new arrivals
- The foreign-born population passed 1M residents
Today
- United States replaced Venezuela as the main destination for those leaving
- A surge of arrivals — the foreign-born population jumped 59%
- Roughly 1 in 20 residents was now foreign-born
- The gap between arrivals and departures was cut in half
- Since 1990: 2.9M more foreign-born residents and 2.7M more citizens living abroad