Africa’s largest diasporas reflect two very different forces: the pursuit of work and education, and the flight from war or political instability. Yet the distinction is often blurred by eye-catching migration graphics.
The latest United Nations estimates place Egypt first, with 4.82m people born in the country living abroad in 2024. It is followed by Sudan, with 3.79m; Morocco, 3.63m; and South Sudan, 3.17m. The Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria each account for roughly 2.1m emigrants.
The remainder of the top 10 differs considerably from the accompanying infographic.
“Migration is therefore neither simply a search for prosperity nor merely an escape from danger. It is both”
Burkina Faso, with 2.05m emigrants, Somalia with 1.94m, Algeria with 1.78m and Zimbabwe with 1.52m complete the latest ranking. Ghana, Tunisia and Ethiopia do not. Together, the ten countries account for almost 27m people living outside their country of birth. These figures are migrant stocks, not the number of people who left during a single year. They are generally based on birthplace rather than citizenship and include refugees.
The data therefore capture Egyptian professionals working in the Gulf, Moroccan families established in Europe and South Sudanese refugees living just across the border. Nor is African migration primarily an exodus to Europe. Of the roughly 45.8m African-born international migrants recorded in 2024, around 25m were living elsewhere in Africa.
The UN estimates that 64% of migrants born in sub-Saharan Africa remained within the region. Conflict nevertheless weighs heavily.
By the end of 2024, 14.3m Sudanese people were displaced, including 2.1m refugees abroad, making Sudan one of the world’s gravest displacement crises. Migration is therefore neither simply a search for prosperity nor merely an escape from danger. It is both.
For African governments, the challenge is to retain skills while benefiting from diasporas whose remittances, investment and commercial networks increasingly connect the continent to itself and to the wider world.
