The following is from Gallup News.

Gallup’s latest global migration survey reveals that the desire to migrate has reached record levels worldwide. Sixteen percent (16%) of adults, or over 900 million people, say they would like to leave their country permanently if they could. This percentage remains steady compared to 2021 and 2022 but is higher than the 12%-15% range recorded between 2011 and 2018. Gallup’s data, collected from nearly 146,000 adults across 142 countries, reflects a continued rise in migration desire since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The desire to migrate has increased most in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and North America. In Latin America, twenty-eight percent (28%) of adults say they want to migrate, a decline from the 34% peak in 2021-2022 but still ten points higher than in 2011. Meanwhile, thirty-seven percent (37%) of adults in sub-Saharan Africa express the desire to migrate, the highest globally and up eight points from 2011.

In the United States and Canada, migration desire has also risen sharply. Twenty percent (20%) of Canadians now say they would like to migrate, a record high and more than double the 8% in 2011. In the U.S., seventeen percent (17%) expressed a desire to leave in 2023, rising to twenty-one percent (21%) in recent polling, matching the previous record high.

The United States remains the most desired destination among potential migrants, with eighteen percent (18%) saying they would move there if possible. This figure, though, is lower than in previous years. Canada ranks second, with nine percent (9%) of potential migrants preferring to relocate there.

Read the full Gallup article here.