Personal remittances, received (current US$) - Country Ranking

Definition: 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 who are employed in an economy where they are not resident and of residents employed by nonresident entities. Data are the sum of two items defined in the sixth edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual: personal transfers and compensation of employees. Data are in current U.S. dollars.

Source: World Bank staff estimates based on IMF balance of payments data.

See also: Thematic map, Time series comparison

Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 India 83,149,180,000.00 2020
2 Mexico 42,878,280,000.00 2020
3 Philippines 34,913,340,000.00 2020
4 Egypt 29,602,900,000.00 2020
5 Pakistan 26,108,000,000.00 2020
6 France 25,141,880,000.00 2020
7 Bangladesh 21,749,700,000.00 2020
8 China 18,902,000,000.00 2020
9 Germany 17,898,800,000.00 2020
10 Nigeria 17,207,550,000.00 2020
11 Vietnam 17,200,000,000.00 2020
12 Ukraine 15,213,000,000.00 2020
13 Belgium 12,693,510,000.00 2020
14 Guatemala 11,405,440,000.00 2020
15 Russia 9,914,970,000.00 2020
16 Italy 9,711,242,000.00 2020
17 Indonesia 9,650,927,000.00 2020
18 Dominican Republic 8,331,600,000.00 2020
19 Thailand 8,256,962,000.00 2020
20 Nepal 8,107,745,000.00 2020
21 Romania 7,625,731,000.00 2020
22 Morocco 7,418,558,000.00 2020
23 Korea 7,412,800,000.00 2020
24 Sri Lanka 7,140,414,000.00 2020
25 Uzbekistan 6,979,795,000.00 2020
26 Colombia 6,929,099,000.00 2020
27 Poland 6,727,000,000.00 2020
28 Lebanon 6,633,294,000.00 2020
29 United States 6,498,000,000.00 2020
30 El Salvador 5,936,158,000.00 2020
31 Honduras 5,588,646,000.00 2020
32 Japan 4,875,181,000.00 2020
33 Ghana 4,291,957,000.00 2020
34 Croatia 4,203,434,000.00 2020
35 Czech Republic 4,184,383,000.00 2020
36 Jordan 3,902,394,000.00 2020
37 Serbia 3,868,522,000.00 2020
38 Hungary 3,819,836,000.00 2020
39 Yemen 3,770,584,000.00 2016
40 Brazil 3,566,220,000.00 2020
41 Ecuador 3,343,696,000.00 2020
42 United Kingdom 3,248,094,000.00 2020
43 Haiti 3,110,524,000.00 2020
44 Kenya 3,100,000,000.00 2020
45 Sweden 3,091,165,000.00 2020
46 Jamaica 3,066,874,000.00 2020
47 Austria 3,000,360,000.00 2020
48 Spain 2,996,361,000.00 2020
49 Switzerland 2,940,841,000.00 2020
50 Peru 2,938,617,000.00 2020
51 Senegal 2,561,900,000.00 2020
52 Slovak Republic 2,463,633,000.00 2020
53 Kyrgyz Republic 2,422,825,000.00 2020
54 Tunisia 2,367,373,000.00 2020
55 Netherlands 2,358,923,000.00 2020
56 Myanmar 2,249,552,000.00 2020
57 Tajikistan 2,186,808,000.00 2020
58 Luxembourg 2,138,375,000.00 2020
59 Georgia 2,109,659,000.00 2020
60 Moldova 1,876,620,000.00 2020
61 Bosnia and Herzegovina 1,858,045,000.00 2020
62 Nicaragua 1,855,400,000.00 2020
63 Zimbabwe 1,832,039,000.00 2020
64 Somalia 1,735,000,000.00 2020
65 Algeria 1,699,609,000.00 2020
66 Syrian Arab Republic 1,622,539,000.00 2010
67 Denmark 1,488,326,000.00 2020
68 Albania 1,465,987,000.00 2020
69 Malaysia 1,431,608,000.00 2020
70 Azerbaijan 1,403,087,000.00 2020
71 Iran 1,330,000,000.00 2020
72 Armenia 1,327,006,000.00 2020
73 Cambodia 1,271,951,000.00 2020
74 Australia 1,190,623,000.00 2020
75 Israel 1,138,100,000.00 2020
76 Bolivia 1,126,574,000.00 2020
77 Dem. Rep. Congo 1,109,068,000.00 2020
78 Latvia 1,088,350,000.00 2020
79 Uganda 1,061,903,000.00 2020
80 Belarus 1,013,700,000.00 2020
81 Mali 987,299,900.00 2020
82 Bulgaria 954,920,000.00 2020
83 Canada 821,832,400.00 2020
84 Finland 812,727,200.00 2020
85 South Africa 810,881,600.00 2020
86 Turkey 795,000,000.00 2020
87 Lithuania 790,579,500.00 2020
88 Afghanistan 788,917,100.00 2020
89 Qatar 651,648,300.00 2020
90 Iraq 644,400,000.00 2020
91 Slovenia 641,690,800.00 2020
92 Argentina 630,973,900.00 2020
93 New Caledonia 621,061,700.00 2020
94 Greece 611,382,000.00 2020
95 Montenegro 600,703,200.00 2020
96 Norway 592,517,000.00 2020
97 Portugal 590,544,200.00 2020
98 Paraguay 583,715,000.00 2020
99 Mongolia 548,833,300.00 2020
100 Cyprus 533,790,700.00 2020
101 Costa Rica 524,786,800.00 2020
102 Niger 520,943,700.00 2020
103 Estonia 506,608,500.00 2020
104 Madagascar 495,356,500.00 2020
105 Sudan 495,355,100.00 2020
106 Lesotho 470,565,600.00 2020
107 Burkina Faso 464,677,600.00 2020
108 Panama 455,712,200.00 2020
109 Togo 440,792,800.00 2020
110 Guyana 438,381,500.00 2020
111 Hong Kong SAR, China 426,572,600.00 2020
112 The Gambia 416,418,900.00 2020
113 North Macedonia 412,936,000.00 2020
114 Ethiopia 404,088,300.00 2020
115 Kazakhstan 374,391,300.00 2020
116 Fiji 355,403,500.00 2020
117 Mozambique 348,813,800.00 2020
118 Cameroon 334,097,300.00 2020
119 Liberia 333,398,300.00 2020
120 Tanzania 326,160,700.00 2020
121 Côte d'Ivoire 323,756,400.00 2020
122 Saudi Arabia 302,253,100.00 2020
123 Mauritius 284,728,300.00 2020
124 Rwanda 280,069,100.00 2020
125 Malta 280,000,200.00 2020
126 Venezuela 279,000,000.00 2020
127 Ireland 276,051,000.00 2020
128 Cabo Verde 245,800,400.00 2020
129 Lao PDR 232,166,100.00 2020
130 Comoros 227,340,400.00 2020
131 Malawi 215,397,900.00 2020
132 Benin 206,141,200.00 2020
133 Samoa 204,160,500.00 2020
134 Trinidad and Tobago 194,437,600.00 2020
135 Tonga 190,551,200.00 2020
136 Mauritania 168,665,200.00 2020
137 Iceland 165,481,100.00 2020
138 Timor-Leste 155,460,500.00 2020
139 New Zealand 147,708,400.00 2020
140 Zambia 134,864,800.00 2020
141 Suriname 124,028,600.00 2020
142 Guinea-Bissau 122,986,800.00 2020
143 Belize 120,683,600.00 2020
144 Eswatini 112,495,400.00 2020
145 Uruguay 111,117,400.00 2020
146 Barbados 108,317,200.00 2020
147 Vanuatu 87,467,130.00 2020
148 Bhutan 83,435,180.00 2020
149 Chile 70,926,720.00 2020
150 Grenada 70,430,710.00 2020
151 Dominica 67,960,520.00 2020
152 Djibouti 64,055,460.00 2020
153 Namibia 64,026,880.00 2020
154 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 60,689,300.00 2020
155 St. Lucia 59,588,740.00 2020
156 Sierra Leone 59,000,000.00 2020
157 Burundi 45,630,630.00 2020
158 Oman 39,011,700.00 2020
159 Antigua and Barbuda 36,331,450.00 2020
160 Botswana 35,615,910.00 2020
161 St. Kitts and Nevis 31,577,820.00 2020
162 Solomon Islands 27,508,840.00 2020
163 Guinea 22,530,000.00 2020
164 Kuwait 22,517,470.00 2020
165 Macao SAR, China 19,118,110.00 2020
166 Gabon 17,734,960.00 2020
167 Kiribati 14,916,120.00 2020
168 Cayman Islands 14,148,600.00 2020
169 Seychelles 9,979,687.00 2020
170 São Tomé and Principe 8,620,359.00 2020
171 Angola 8,053,051.00 2020
172 Congo 7,704,784.00 2016
173 Nauru 6,535,566.00 2018
174 Palau 2,176,268.00 2020
175 Papua New Guinea 2,000,000.00 2020
176 Turkmenistan 1,000,000.00 2020
177 Brunei 869,996.10 2020
178 Eritrea 0.00 2019
178 Central African Republic 0.00 2020
178 Libya 0.00 2019
178 Equatorial Guinea 0.00 2019
178 Singapore 0.00 2019
178 Chad 0.00 2020
178 Tuvalu 0.00 2020

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Development Relevance: Movement of people, most often through migration, is a significant part of global integration. Migrants contribute to the economies of both their host country and their country of origin. Yet reliable statistics on migration are difficult to collect and are often incomplete, making international comparisons a challenge. In most developed countries, refugees are admitted for resettlement and are routinely included in population counts by censuses or population registers. Globally, the number of refugees at end 2010 was 10.55 million, including 597,300 people considered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to be in a refugee-like situation; developing countries hosted 8.5 million refugees, or 80 percent of the global refugee population. Global migration patterns have become increasingly complex in modern times, involving not just refugees, but also millions of economic migrants. But refugees and migrants, even if they often travel in the same way, are fundamentally different, and for that reason are treated very differently under modern international law. Migrants, especially economic migrants, choose to move in order to improve the future prospects of themselves and their families. Refugees have to move if they are to save their lives or preserve their freedom. They have no protection from their own state - indeed it is often their own government that is threatening to persecute them. If other countries do not let them in, and do not help them once they are in, then they may be condemning them to death - or to an intolerable life in the shadows, without sustenance and without rights.

Limitations and Exceptions: Remittance transactions have grown in importance over the past decade. In a number of developing economies, receipts of remittances have become an important and stable source of funds that exceeds receipts from exports of goods and services or from financial inflows on foreign direct investment. But the quality of statistical remittance data is not high. Remittances are a challenge to measure because of their nature. They are heterogeneous with numerous small transactions conducted by individuals through a wide variety of channels: formal channels, such as electronic wire, or through informal channels, such as cash or goods carried across borders. The large number of remittance transactions and the multitude of channels pose challenges to the compilation of comprehensive statistics. The small size of individual transactions means that they often go undetected by typical data source systems, although the aggregate level of transactions may be substantial. Because of difficulties in obtaining data on informal remittance transactions, the remittance transactions undertaken through informal channels are sometimes not well covered in current balance of payments data. As a result, even though direct measurement of remittances - through transactions reporting or surveys - may be considered preferable if feasible, some countries instead combine different sources and estimation methods to achieve better coverage, by using direct measurements where practical and supplemented estimates where they are not. Model-based approaches are used in some countries as they are flexible. Compilers can design models to fill gaps in data sources or to provide global totals. However, only reliable input data can lead to sound estimates, regardless of the sophistication of an estimation method or econometric model. Indirect data are converted to remittance estimates using a set of assumptions. These assumptions should be plausible, but it is often not possible to test or verify these assumptions and also the results in practice.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The two main components of personal remittances, "personal transfers" and "compensation of employees", are items in the balance of payments (BPM6) framework. Both of these standard components are recorded in the current account. "Personal transfers", a new item in the Balance of Payments (BPM6) represents a broader definition of worker remittances. Personal transfers include all current transfers in cash or in kind between resident and nonresident individuals, independent of the source of income of the sender (irrespective of whether the sender receives income from labor, entrepreneurial or property income, social benefits, and any other types of transfers; or disposes assets) and the relationship between the households (irrespective of whether they are related or unrelated individuals). Compensation of employees refers to the income of border, seasonal, and other short-term workers who are employed in an economy where they are not resident and of residents employed by nonresident entities. Compensation of employees represents remuneration in return for the labor input to the production process contributed by an individual in an employer-employee relationship with the enterprise. Compensation of employees is recorded gross and includes amounts paid by the employee as taxes or for other purposes in the economy where the work is performed. Compensation of employees has three main components: wages and salaries in cash, wages and salaries in kind, and employers' social contributions.

Aggregation method: Sum

Periodicity: Annual

General Comments: Note: Data starting from 2005 are based on the sixth edition of the IMF's Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6).