“Global Migration Trends” is the inaugural issue of the series Data Bulletin: Informing a Global Compact for Migration. It provides a brief overview of key global migration trends, based on available statistics and estimates from a variety of sources, to support informed decision-making throughout a global compact for migration process. The document summarizes key facts and figures on a range of migration-related topics, covering the period January 2015–December 2016, and citing more recent figures when available. Although this Data Bulletin is by no means exhaustive, it presents a broad picture of the state of migration around the world. A more detailed report on global migration trends will be published by IOM’s GMDAC in December 2017.

About the series:

Data Bulletin: Informing a Global Compact for Migration, launched by IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre, aims to summarize in an accurate and accessible fashion the existing evidence on migration to support the discussions and any follow-up activities of a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration.

As part of the project “Support to IOM for the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration,” funded by the European Union, Data Bulletins outline the strengths and limitations of relevant migration data, and highlight innovative data practices which are pertinent to a global compact for migration. Data Bulletins reflect the collaborative nature of a global compact for migration process by including relevant contributions from different parts of IOM as well as other agencies and migration experts.

The Data Bulletin: Informing a Global Compact for Migration will continue to focus on providing policymakers with the information and analysis required for evidence-based decision making. Future issues will be published and distributed, notably at key events related to a global compact for migration process throughout 2018.