People move. From house to house, region to region, and country to country. This GeoFRED map colors the big picture with 2008-2012 data on how the world’s population has moved.

Specifically, these numbers reflect national net migration. Green represents positive net migration, with more immigrants than emigrants—that is, more people moved into the country to live than left the country to live elsewhere. Orange represents the opposite, negative net migration, with more emigrants than immigrants. These data, which are 5-year estimates, include both citizens and noncitizens.

Some not-so-surprising observations: The U.S. attracted a net inflow of over 5 million. The people of North Korea stayed put, with a net migration of effectively zero. Syria, in part due to the civil unrest since early 2011, had a net outflow of over 4 million people. And we have no migration data at all for Greenland, which has only about 50,000 residents.

How this map was created: The original post referenced an interactive map from our now discontinued GeoFRED site. The revised post provides a replacement map from FRED’s new mapping tool. To create FRED maps, go to the data series page in question and look for the green “VIEW MAP” button at the top right of the graph. See this post for instructions to edit a FRED map. Only series with a green map button can be mapped.

Suggested by Chris Russell.