THE OECD and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs have compiled new data and analysis on global migration trends that will be discussed at a UN High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development in New York on 3 and 4 October 2013.

These new data reveal a number of striking trends:

• Of the 7 billion people living in the world today, some 232 million are migrants. This represents a rise of 57 million people since 2000, of whom just over half are living in OECD countries.

• Women make up about 48% of all international migrants (51% in the OECD).

• 14% of migrants in OECD countries have migrated within the past five years. This share has dropped significantly since 2000, notably due to the fall in the number of people leaving Latin America because of the impact of the crisis in the United States and Spain, their main destination countries,.

• Migrants have been hard hit by the crisis. Their unemployment rate has increased by two percentage points in the past five years, reaching 11.6%. The increase has been greater among migrants from Africa (+ 4.3 percentage points) and Latin America (+3.4 percentage points).

• The number of tertiary educated migrants in the OECD has increased by 70% since 2000. In 2010/11, India (2 million, +78% since 2000/01), China (1.7 million, +71%) and the Philippines (1.4 million, +60%) accounted for one fifth of all tertiary educated migrants in OECD (and for a quarter of those who arrived in the past five years).

• The “brain drain” is particularly acute in small countries and island states in Africa and the Latin America. Latest data show that some countries, notably in the Caribbean, have more tertiary educated people living in the OECD than at home. In contrast, the emigration rate is low in the Middle East and North Africa, and in most large emerging economies, including China and Brazil.