Countries by Personal remittances, received (current US$)

Ranking 2024

Analysis

This metric measures personal remittances received, expressed in current US dollars. According to the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code BX.TRF.PWKR.CD.DT), personal remittances comprise personal transfers and compensation of employees. Personal transfers consist of all current transfers in cash or in kind made or received by resident households to or from nonresident households. Personal transfers thus include all current transfers between resident and nonresident individuals. Compensation of employees refers to the income of border, seasonal, and other short-term workers. The data covers 190 countries, with 184 of 190 (96.8%) reporting values for 2024 and 187 of 190 (98.4%) having data from within the last seven years. All 100% of datapoints are classified as official quality. The ranking uses absolute values in current US dollars, so larger countries with bigger populations and larger diaspora networks tend to rank higher by construction.

The top of the ranking is concentrated in large developing economies with significant overseas labor forces. India (rank 1) received $137.67 billion, followed by Mexico (rank 2) at $67.64 billion and the Philippines (rank 3) at $40.28 billion. France (rank 4, $38.78 billion) and Pakistan (rank 5, $34.91 billion) round out the top five. China ranks 6th at $31.41 billion, and Bangladesh ranks 8th at $27.52 billion. Guatemala (rank 9, $21.64 billion) and Nigeria (rank 10, $21.29 billion) also appear in the top ten, reflecting the scale of labor migration from Central Africa and Central America. Germany ranks 11th at $21.23 billion, one of several high-income European countries that appear as significant remittance receivers alongside France and Belgium (rank 15, $15.48 billion), illustrating that compensation of employees paid across borders contributes meaningfully to high-income country totals.

Several counterintuitive placements appear in the middle and lower segments of the ranking. The United States ranks only 25th at $8.71 billion, well below smaller economies such as Guatemala (rank 9) and Honduras (rank 22, $9.53 billion). Uzbekistan ranks 12th at $16.58 billion and Tajikistan ranks 30th at $6.80 billion, both relatively small economies that place ahead of much larger ones. Bermuda (rank 64, $2.35 billion) outranks many larger developing nations. At the lower end, Kuwait ranks 179th at just $20.39 million, Angola ranks 166th at $51.04 million, and Oman ranks 171st at $39.01 million, all despite being significant remittance-sending countries, which highlights that this metric measures inflows only. The 32 extreme outliers identified at the 3-sigma threshold reflect the steep concentration of flows at the top of the distribution.

Several data limitations are relevant to this metric. Because values are in current US dollars, exchange rate movements can shift a country's rank between years without any real change in remittance volumes. The metric captures only received remittances as reported through official or estimated channels; informal transfers carried by travelers or sent through unrecorded channels are not included, which may cause significant underreporting in countries with weaker financial infrastructure. The inclusion of compensation of employees alongside personal transfers means that some values reflect cross-border wage income rather than household-to-household transfers, making cross-country comparisons less straightforward. Absolute values inherently favor populous countries over smaller ones, so per-capita or GDP-relative measures would present a different picture. Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 25.3%, indicating notable volatility in some country series.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code BX.TRF.PWKR.CD.DT, for the reference year 2024. Personal remittances comprise personal transfers and compensation of employees. Personal transfers consist of all current transfers in cash or in kind made or received by resident households to or from nonresident households. Personal transfers thus include all current transfers between resident and nonresident individuals. Compensation of employees refers to the income of border, seasonal, and other short-term workers. Values are expressed as absolute current US dollars. The ranking covers 190 countries. Of these, 184 of 190 (96.8%) have data for 2024 specifically, and 187 of 190 (98.4%) have data from within the last seven years. All datapoints (100%) are classified as official quality, exceeding the 70% threshold. The viability check identified 32 extreme outliers using a 3-sigma threshold, consistent with the dataset's wide value range of $1.95 million (Palau, rank 190) to $137.67 billion (India, rank 1), a spread of over 7,049,287%. Average year-over-year change is 25.3%, below the 50% volatility threshold. Informal remittance flows and exchange rate effects are known limitations of this measure.

Sources

• World Bank