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Migrants send home almost three times more than all foreign aid

Original title: Money sent home by international migrants is almost three times as much as global foreign aid · Our World in Data · 18 Jun 2025

Migrants send home almost three times more than all foreign aid

Chart: Our World in Data, CC BY 4.0

So what

At over $800 billion a year, remittances are the largest external financial flow to many developing economies, ahead of aid and often FDI. For payments firms, banks and telecoms this is a high-volume corridor business where fees and speed are the battleground. For governments, aid cuts look smaller beside private family transfers, but remittances do not fund public goods.

LabelValueUnitPeriod
Remittances sent or brought back by migrants (text)822US$ billion2023
Global foreign aid, net ODA (text)288US$ billion2023
Remittances (chart alt text)781US$ billion2021
Foreign aid (chart alt text)202US$ billion2021
Tajikistan remittances received57.664845% of GDP2025
Tonga remittances received39.19703% of GDP2024
Lebanon remittances received33.349773% of GDP2023
Honduras remittances received30.11853% of GDP2025
El Salvador remittances received27.511269% of GDP2025
Nicaragua remittances received26.632397% of GDP2024
Nepal remittances received25.992485% of GDP2024