India (Commonwealth Union)_According to the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) latest edition of the World Migration Report 2026, remittances are playing an increasingly important role in the global economy. Accordingly, India received the highest remittance in the world in 2024 with an all-time high inflow of $137.67 billion from its overseas population. This is the first occasion on which any country crossed the $100 billion mark in annual remittance inflows. This is a big increase from 2020 when India received $83.15 billion. The steady growth reflects the valuable contribution of millions of Indians living and working abroad.
Top 10 countries receiving remittances in 2024
- India – $137.67 billion
- Mexico – $67.64 billion
- Philippines – $40.28 billion
- France – $38.78 billion
- Pakistan – $34.91 billion
- China – $31.41 billion
- Egypt – $29.56 billion
- Bangladesh – $27.60 billion
- Guatemala – $21.64 billion
- Nigeria – $21.30 billion
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Remittances are monies or goods sent by migrant workers to support their families and communities at home. For many developing countries, these financial transfers are a major component of household income and economic security. They help families to cover daily expenses, education, health services, housing, and entrepreneurial initiatives. The report notes that India has the largest international migrant population in the world. Large Indian communities living in the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Saudi Arabia, and several other countries continue to send significant amounts of money back home each year.
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Mexico was the second-largest recipient of remittances in 2024, with inflows amounting to $67.64 billion after India. The Philippines secured third place with $40.28 billion, continuing its long-standing dependence on overseas workers and foreign earnings. France ranked fourth with remittances of $38.78 billion. However, the report clarified that a large portion of France’s inflows comes from cross-border workers employed in Switzerland rather than traditional remittance transfers from migrant workers abroad.
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Pakistan moved into fifth position with $34.91 billion in remittances, showing strong growth from previous years. China followed closely behind with inflows of $31.41 billion, while Egypt and Bangladesh also remained among the world’s largest recipients. The report also examined the countries sending the most money abroad. The United States was the largest remittance-outflow country in 2024, with more than $100 billion in remittances sent abroad. Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and Germany followed, with more than $50 billion sent abroad each.
The report also underscored another major challenge: the high cost of international money transfers. Countries are supposed to reduce the fees for remittance transfers to less than 3 percent of the money sent, under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. But the average cost of sending money across the world still remains much higher. In 2023, remittances were most expensive to send in sub-Saharan Africa (nearly 8 per cent) and least expensive in South Asia (nearly 5 per cent). East Asia and the Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean were above the global target.
