Health and Healthcare Systems

These countries are the world's top remittance recipients

image of people wearing protective face masks while at a metro station, amid COVID-19

While total remittance inflow was down, some countries substantially increased it during the crisis. Image: REUTERS/Ann Wang

Niall McCarthy
Data Journalist, Statista
  • Global remittance flows have shown more resilience than expected during COVID-19, particularly for low and middle-income countries.
  • World Bank data shows that global remittances are expected to total $702 billion in 2020, which is a drop from the $719 billion recorded in 2019.
  • India is expected to have received the most - at $83.1 billion.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, global remittance flows have proven more resilient than expected. This is especially true for inflows to low and middle-income countries.

According to new World Bank data, global remittances are expected to total $702 billion in 2020, down from $719 billion in 2019 (-2.4 percent). Of that total, $540 billion are expected to have flown into low and middle-income countries, down from $548 billion (-1.6 percent).

Have you read?

While total remittance inflow was down, some countries actually increased it during the crisis quite substantially. Among them are Mexico, the third-biggest remittance recipient in the world, as well as Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the global numbers five, six and eight. Among developing nations, India and the Philippines had some of the smallest losses in 2020 compared to 2019, at 0.2 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

The Central Bank of the Philippines had earlier this year put remittance decrease in the country at 0.8 percent. While the numbers differs slightly, the uniformly coded World Bank data makes it possible to compared remittances between countries. The small decrease is unusual for the world's fourth largest remittance recipient: In the past ten years, remittance inflow to the Philippines had shown an annual increase of 3 to almost 9 percent.

Developed countries are also recipients of remittances, as the presence of France and Germany in the top 10 shows. Remittance inflows are typically less important to their economies, however. Remittances made up less than one percent of GDP in the two European countries, as well as in China, in 2020. In the rest of the top 10, this number ranged from 3 percent to almost 10 percent, the highest shares being exhibited by Pakistan (9.9 percent) and the Philippines (9.6 percent).

Discover

How has the Forum navigated the global response to COVID-19?

The countries most reliant on remittance inflow in the World Bank ranking were Tonga (37.7 percent of GDP) as well as Somalia (35.3 percent of GDP) and Lebanon (32.9 percent of GDP).

a chart showing the world's top remittance recipients
India was the top remittance recipient in 2020. Image: Statista
Loading...
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

Pandemic Preparedness and Response

Related topics:
Health and Healthcare SystemsGeo-Economics and PoliticsEconomic Growth
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Pandemic Preparedness and Response is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

The key health achievements of COP29, and other top health stories

Shyam Bishen

November 20, 2024

How equitable access to medicines can drive sustainable returns for investors

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum