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Migration movements include not only entries of persons of foreign nationality, on which public attention tends to be focused; they also include movements of nationals and emigrants. Net migration summarises the overall effect of these movements. It is in more and more OECD countries the main source of increases in population.
Definition
Net migration is defined as the total number of immigrant nationals and foreigners minus the total of emigrant foreigners and nationals. Arrivals and departures for purposes such as tourism and business travel are not included in the statistics.
Comparability
The main sources of information on migration vary across countries, which poses problems for the comparability of available data on inflows and outflows. However, since the comparability problems generally relate to the extent to which short-term movements are covered, taking the difference between arrivals and departures tends to eliminate the movements that are the main source of non-comparability. The net migration data, however, are subject to caution, because unauthorised movements are not taken into account in the inflows and these are significant in some OECD countries. In addition, the data on outflows are of uneven quality, with departures being only partially recorded in many countries or having to be estimated in others.
Net migration rate is used in demographic accounting to describe the contribution of international migration to population increase, the other component being natural increase, the difference between births and deaths in a given year.
Long-term trends
Since 1994 Poland is the only OECD country among the countries shown in the table that has shown negative net migration on a systematic basis. Among countries showing significant increases in population (> 0.5% per year) over the 1995-1999 period as a result of international migration are Australia, Canada, Spain, Ireland and Luxembourg. Since then Iceland, Italy and Switzerland have joined the list. Former emigration countries (Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain) thus figure prominently among high net migration countries, a trend which is likely to continue.
There are nonetheless a number of countries where net migration is currently contributing less to population increase than was the case five to ten years ago. These include New Zealand, Greece, Germany, Turkey, Denmark and the Netherlands. Countries where it is contributing more include the four former emigration countries Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain as well as Austria and Switzerland. Indeed, all but nine OECD countries are showing a larger contribution to population growth from net migration in recent years. With the retirement of baby-boomers in the near future, to be replaced by smaller entering labour force cohorts, labour supply needs may well increase and OECD countries see a continuing rise in net migration.
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Source
Analytical publications
- OECD (2001), Migration Policies and EU Enlargement: The Case of Central and Eastern Europe, OECD, Paris.
- OECD (2003), Migration and the Labour Market in Asia: Recent Trends and Policies - 2002 Edition, OECD, Paris.
- OECD (2004), Migration for Employment: Bilateral Agreements at a Crossroads, OECD, Paris.
- OECD (2004), Trade and Migration: Building Bridges for Global Labour Mobility, OECD, Paris.
- OECD (2006), Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) - From Immigration to Integration: Local Solutions to a Global Challenge, OECD, Paris.
- OECD (2008), International Migration Outlook: SOPEMI - 2008 Edition, OECD, Paris.
- OECD (2008), A Profile of Immigrant Populations in the 21st Century: Data from OECD Countries, OECD, Paris.
Statistical publications
Methodological publications
Online databases
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| Indicator in PDF |
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| Tables |
| Net migration rate |
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| 1.3.1.1. Net migration rate |
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