Money sent home by migrants nearly doubles in a decade

A Latina woman reviews a digital income receipt on a tablet while a child writes in a notebook at a table. Migrants sent $728.6 billion home to families in low and middle-income countries in 2025, nearly double the amount recorded a decade earlier, according to a new report from the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

These transfers, known as remittances, grew by 94 per cent between 2016 and 2025, far outpacing the 28 per cent increase in the number of migrants from those countries. The gap shows that growth is not simply the result of more people migrating: on average, migrants abroad are sending larger amounts home.

Some 220 million migrants and people from the diaspora support an estimated 1.1 billion relatives. “This report is about financial flows of extraordinary scale. But more importantly, it is about families,” Pedro de Vasconcellos, who manages IFAD’s Financing Facility for Remittances, told reporters at UN Headquarters on Monday.

Behind the billions are transfers typically worth $300 to $400, sent nine or 10 times a year, he explained. IFAD says the total sent home last year was more than four times global official development assistance and also exceeded foreign direct investment to low and middle-income countries.

Vulnerable Americas
The growing importance of remittances also leaves families and economies vulnerable to changes affecting migrants abroad.That is particularly evident in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the United States remains the dominant source of remittances. The report warns that deportations, employment restrictions or weaker labour demand can reduce both the number of people sending money and their ability to do so.

Asked about tougher migration policies in the United States and Europe, Mr. de Vasconcellos said the impact is not yet visible as a broad decline.“Figures right now do not show actually a reduction in remittances,” he said, adding that family needs tend to keep flows resilient during crises.

Source: The UN