Countries Receiving the Most Remittances (World Bank 2023-24)

The countries receiving the most remittances are India, Mexico, China, the Philippines, and Pakistan, in that order, on World Bank estimates for both 2023 and 2024. Remittances are the money migrants send home to family, and for low- and middle-income countries the total reached $656 billion in 2023, more than foreign direct investment and official aid combined. This article ranks recipients by dollars and by share of GDP, explains what moves the numbers year to year, and shows why different official sources give different totals for the same country.

Educational only, not financial advice. This article explains data and economic mechanisms. It does not recommend any money transfer provider, investment, or personal financial decision.

Key takeaways

• India received an estimated $120 billion in 2023 and $129 billion in 2024, the largest total of any country.
• Mexico was second at $66.2 billion in 2023 (World Bank) and an estimated $68 billion in 2024. Remittances to Mexico then fell about 5 percent in 2025, the largest drop since 2009, according to FXC Intelligence.
• By share of GDP, Tonga (41 percent) led in 2023 and Tajikistan (45 percent) led in the 2024 estimates.
• Sending $200 cost 6.4 percent on average in the last quarter of 2023, more than double the United Nations target of 3 percent by 2030.
• The World Bank's headline figures cover low- and middle-income countries only, and they count only officially recorded flows.

Who receives the most remittances

The table below uses the World Bank and KNOMAD (the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development) estimates published in Migration and Development Brief 40 in June 2024. It lists the ten largest recipients among low- and middle-income countries for calendar year 2023. High-income recipient countries are not part of that ranking.

Rank	Country	2023 remittances	Region	Context from the World Bank brief
1	India	$120 billion (up 7.5%)	South Asia	Strong US and European labor markets for skilled migrants
2	Mexico	$66.2 billion (up 7.8%)	Latin America	Largest migration corridor in the world, Mexico to the United States
3	China	$50 billion	East Asia and Pacific	Appears in the dollar ranking only, not among the top GDP shares
4	Philippines	$39 billion (up 2.8%)	East Asia and Pacific	Growth muted as domestic jobs recovered
5	Pakistan	$27 billion (down 12%)	South Asia	Flows likely shifted to informal channels
6	Bangladesh	$22 billion (up 3%)	South Asia	Possible diversion to informal channels
7	Guatemala	$20 billion (up 9.7%)	Latin America	Transit migrants and US labor market
8	Nigeria	$20 billion	Sub-Saharan Africa	Regional total fell 0.3% to $54 billion
9	Egypt	$20 billion	Middle East and North Africa	Official flows fell as parallel exchange market grew
10	Ukraine	$15 billion	Europe and Central Asia	Fell from $16.8 billion in 2022, mostly because the central bank changed how it classifies migrants' transfers

Source: World Bank/KNOMAD, Migration and Development Brief 40 (June 2024), figures 1.2 and appendix regional charts. Amounts are rounded as published. Ranks 7 through 9 are tied at about $20 billion in the source chart, so their order here follows the chart's left-to-right order.

The concentration is striking. The five largest recipients took in about $302 billion of the $656 billion total, roughly 46 percent of everything sent to low- and middle-income countries. India alone received about 18 percent.

The 2024 estimates

The World Bank updated its estimates in December 2024. For 2024 it put total remittances to low- and middle-income countries at $685 billion, up 5.8 percent from 2023 and larger than FDI and official development assistance combined.

Country	2023 estimate (Brief 40)	2024 estimate (World Bank, December 2024)
India	$120 billion	$129 billion
Mexico	$66 billion	$68 billion
China	$50 billion	$48 billion
Philippines	$39 billion	$40 billion
Pakistan	$27 billion	$33 billion

Sources: World Bank Migration and Development Brief 40; World Bank People Move blog, December 2024.

The order of the top five did not change. The notable movement was Pakistan, which rebounded after its 2023 drop. Because the 2024 figures are estimates, they can be revised later.

Which countries depend on remittances the most

Dollar totals favor big, populous countries. A different question is how much of an economy rests on money from abroad, and the answer is a very different list. Small economies with large emigrant populations dominate it.

Rank	Country	Remittances as % of GDP, 2023
1	Tonga	41%
2	Tajikistan	39%
3	Lebanon	31%
4	Samoa	28%
5	Nicaragua	27%
6	Nepal	26%
7	Honduras	26%
8	El Salvador	24%
9	The Gambia	23%
10	Kyrgyz Republic	22%

Source: World Bank/KNOMAD, Migration and Development Brief 40, figure 1.2b.

In the 2024 estimates, the top of the GDP-share list was Tajikistan at 45 percent, Tonga at 38 percent, Nicaragua and Lebanon at 27 percent each, and Samoa at 26 percent. The ordering at the top flipped between years because GDP and remittances both move, and for a very small economy one year's migration pattern can shift the ratio by several points.

A useful way to read both tables together: dollars show where the money goes, and share of GDP shows how much the recipient economy would feel if the flow stopped. India's $120 billion equals 3.3 percent of its GDP. Tonga's flow is tiny in dollars but equal to about two-fifths of the whole economy.

Where remittance data comes from, and why sources disagree

Remittance numbers are not a single count. The World Bank builds its series mainly from balance of payments statistics reported to the International Monetary Fund, supplemented by central bank data, and fills gaps with models. The 2023 data in Brief 40 are estimates, and the 2024 and 2025 figures in that brief were forecasts.

Three things make the totals contested.

First, definitions differ. The two major components are personal transfers and compensation of employees, and the World Bank brief says concepts and definitions vary considerably across countries, with discrepancies in how each is recorded. That is why a World Bank figure for a country can differ from the figure published by that country's own central bank.

Second, informal channels are not counted. The brief says a significant portion of remittances moves through informal routes, including cash hand-carried by migrants when they return home. Think of counting fish by looking only at licensed market stalls: the official count is accurate for what it sees and silent on the catch sold from the dock.

Third, the global books do not balance. In 2000, global outward remittances reported by countries equaled global inward flows. By 2023, outward flows were only about two-thirds of inward flows, a widening gap the brief ties to deficiencies in coverage and scope.

Example of a source difference	Figure A	Figure B
India, 2023 (World Bank, calendar year) versus 2023-24 (Reserve Bank of India survey, fiscal year)	$120 billion	$118.7 billion
Philippines, 2024 (World Bank estimate) versus 2024 (central bank personal remittances)	$40 billion	$38.34 billion
Mexico, 2024 (World Bank estimate) versus 2024 (Banxico, as reported by FXC Intelligence)	$68 billion	$64.7 billion

These gaps are modest, and they are mostly explained by different time periods, definitions, and estimation methods. None of the sources is wrong. They measure slightly different things.

Remittances compared with foreign investment and aid

The reason economists pay such close attention to remittances is their size relative to other money flowing into developing economies. In 2023, remittances to low- and middle-income countries were $656 billion. Foreign direct investment (FDI, meaning companies buying or building productive assets abroad) was $382 billion, and official development assistance (ODA, meaning government aid) was $256 billion. Remittances exceeded the two combined.

The trend matters as much as the level. In the brief's 2000 to 2023 chart, FDI peaked around 2011 and again in 2021, then fell sharply, while remittances climbed steadily. The World Bank's December 2024 blog describes the decade trend as a 57 percent rise in remittances against a 41 percent fall in FDI. Remittances also grew from $475 billion in 2017 to $656 billion in 2023, an increase of about 38 percent.

Two analogies capture why this matters. FDI behaves like a tide that rises and falls with global investor mood. Remittances behave more like a river fed by millions of small streams, each tied to a family's obligations, so the flow is less tied to any single month's market sentiment. A second way to see it: a country that depends on commodity exports is like a farmer with one crop, while a country with large remittances has a second income stream that arrives regardless of the harvest.

The World Bank brief makes a similar point in region-specific terms. It describes remittances to the Middle East and North Africa as offering support against the high volatility of other flows, and as a buffer for current account deficits (the gap between what a country earns abroad and what it spends abroad) in several economies in Europe and Central Asia. For readers interested in the investment side of this comparison, see our ranking of countries attracting the most foreign direct investment and of countries that give the most foreign aid.

India: the largest recipient and a changing map

India's remittances reached an estimated $120 billion in 2023, up 7.5 percent. The World Bank attributes this to inflation easing and strong labor markets in the United States and Europe for India's skilled migrants, along with demand for skilled and less-skilled workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. India is also the largest origin country for international migrants, with about 18.7 million emigrants in 2023. For the other side of the story, see our ranking of countries with the most immigrants.

The Reserve Bank of India publishes its own survey of remittances, and its sixth round, covering fiscal year 2023-24, shows a shift in where the money comes from. Total inward remittances were $118.7 billion, up from $55.6 billion in 2010-11. The United States was the largest source at 27.7 percent, up from 23.4 percent in 2020-21. The UAE was second at 19.2 percent. The United Kingdom rose to 10.8 percent from 6.8 percent. The UAE's share rose only slightly, from 18 percent in 2020-21, so the United States and the United Kingdom gained the most ground (RBI survey as summarized by PTI).

Indian state	Share of inward remittances, 2023-24	Change from 2020-21
Maharashtra	20.5%	Down from 35.2%
Kerala	19.7%	Up from about 10%
Tamil Nadu	10.4%	Not stated in source
Telangana	8.1%	Not stated in source
Karnataka	7.7%	Not stated in source

The state data show the shift. Maharashtra's share fell sharply while Kerala's roughly doubled, which fits the move from Gulf-based to advanced-economy migrants. The RBI also reports that transfers above 5 lakh rupees made up about 29 percent of value, which may reflect larger sums sent by higher-earning migrants.

Remittances are a modest part of India's economy because the economy is large: the World Bank puts them at 3.3 percent of GDP. That is one reason India appears first in the dollar table but nowhere in the GDP-share table.

Mexico: the world's largest corridor under pressure

Mexico received $66.2 billion in 2023, up 7.8 percent, and the World Bank calls it the world's second-largest recipient. The Mexico to United States route is the largest migration corridor in the world. The stock of Mexican-born immigrants in the United States rose from 11.6 million in March 2023 to 12.7 million in March 2024, according to US Current Population Survey data cited in the brief.

Mexico's own central bank, Banxico, reported record 2024 remittances of $64.7 billion across 164.8 million transactions. In 2025 the picture changed. FXC Intelligence reports that remittances into Mexico fell 5 percent, the biggest decline since 2009, with almost $3 billion less received than in 2024, taking the total below 2023 levels. The number of transactions fell by nine million, the first annual drop since 2009 (FXC Intelligence).

What caused the fall is debated. FXC notes that many analysts point to changes in US immigration policy and cites Department of Homeland Security data showing border crossings down 93 percent year on year in 2025. A 1 percent US federal tax on remittances, which took effect at the start of 2026, is another suspect, but FXC notes it applies only to cash, money orders, and cashier's checks, which made up about 1 percent of transfers into Mexico in 2025. Electronic transfers were 99 percent, so the tax's direct effect on volumes is likely limited, though it could matter more later.

This episode illustrates a limit of the "remittances are stable" idea. The flow is resilient to many shocks, but it depends on migrants' jobs and legal status in the host country, so it is not immune to policy changes there.

The Philippines and the managed-migration model

The Philippines received $39 billion in 2023 on the World Bank's count, growing 2.8 percent after 3.7 percent in 2022, and the brief expects about $40 billion in 2024. It is the largest recipient in East Asia and the Pacific after China, and it accounts for about 48 percent of the region's remittances excluding China. The brief credits a well-diversified set of host destinations across the world for the sustained growth.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank, reports its own series. Personal remittances were a record $38.34 billion in 2024, up 3 percent from $37.21 billion in 2023, equal to 8.3 percent of GDP and 7.4 percent of gross national income. Cash remittances through banks were $34.49 billion. The United States was the largest source at 40.6 percent, followed by Singapore at 7.2 percent and Saudi Arabia at 6.4 percent (Philippine Star).

One reason growth was muted in 2023, according to the World Bank brief, is that domestic employment became a more attractive alternative to emigration as tourism recovered. That is a useful example of how remittances respond to conditions at home as well as abroad.

South Asia's informal-channel problem

South Asia received $186 billion in 2023, the largest of any developing region, and the brief notes that remittances there were 5.6 times as large as FDI. Yet two of the region's three biggest recipients had a difficult year, and the reason is a data and policy story.

Pakistan's formal remittances fell 12 percent to $27 billion in 2023, from more than $30 billion in 2022. The World Bank says labor markets in destination countries were favorable, so a significant share of remittances likely flowed through informal channels, prompted by a balance of payments crisis and exchange-rate problems at home. Bangladesh's formal remittances grew only 3 percent to $22 billion, and the brief suggests a similar diversion there.

When the official exchange rate is far from the street rate, a migrant gets more rupees or takas by using an informal money transfer operator than a bank. The money still arrives, but it vanishes from the official count. That is why the 2024 rebound in Pakistan's figure ($33 billion) can reflect returning confidence in formal channels as much as new money.

Nepal shows the opposite pattern. Its remittances grew 17 percent to $10.8 billion in 2023 and equal 26.5 percent of GDP. The brief reports that jobs abroad pay about three times as much as a domestic job for most Nepalis, and that sustained remittances of about 25 percent of GDP for over a decade contributed to an estimated 32 percent reduction in poverty, citing World Bank 2024 work.

Egypt and the parallel market

Remittances to the Middle East and North Africa fell about 15 percent to $55 billion in 2023, and the World Bank attributes most of the drop to Egypt, the region's largest recipient. Egypt faced a severe shortage of foreign currency, a fixed exchange rate, and an overvalued pound, and a parallel market emerged in which the pound reached 70 per US dollar at one point. Migrants had reason to send money by unofficial routes.

After Egypt unified its exchange rates in March 2024, the brief reports signs of recovery in flows through official channels. The lesson generalizes: a recipient country's own exchange-rate policy can move its recorded remittances by double digits in a year, with little change in actual money sent.

Small nations and total dependence

For small economies, remittances are the economy's backbone. The Pacific is the clearest case. The brief names Palau, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu as economies where remittances are crucial, and Tonga as the most dependent in the world in 2023 at about 41 percent of GDP. Growth in the Pacific was uneven in 2023, with declines reported in Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu, while Fiji grew 9 percent, which the brief links to tourism recovery.

Central Asia's dependence runs through a single country. Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan received remittances equal to 22, 39, and 15 percent of GDP in 2023, coming largely from Russia. The World Bank reports several facts about this link:

• Russia accounted for about 78 percent of Uzbekistan's remittances in 2023, down from 87 percent in 2022 and up from roughly half in 2019 to 2021.
• The Russian ruble fell 39 percent against the US dollar in 2023, shrinking the dollar value of money sent home.
• Wage gaps are large: average dollar wages as a share of Russian levels were 41.9 percent in Uzbekistan, 38.8 percent in the Kyrgyz Republic, and 19.6 percent in Tajikistan.
• About 1.3 million Tajik nationals lived in Russia by official figures, a number believed to be an underestimate.

The exposure is concentrated: when one host economy sneezes, a whole recipient economy catches cold. That is the difference between a diversified flow like India's, with many source countries, and a single-corridor flow.

Nicaragua offers a contrasting case from Latin America. Its remittances grew 44.5 percent in 2023 after large-scale emigration in 2022 and 2023, and it ranks fifth in the world by GDP share. In Central America more broadly, remittances to Guatemala rose 9.7 percent and to Honduras 17.8 percent, which the brief links partly to transit migrants stranded in those countries while heading north.

What it costs to send money home

Sending money is itself a large expense, and it falls on people with modest incomes. The World Bank's Remittance Prices Worldwide database put the global average cost of sending $200 at 6.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023, up from 6.2 percent a year earlier. The Sustainable Development Goal target is 3 percent by 2030.

A worked example makes the stakes concrete. At 6.4 percent, sending $200 costs $12.80. At the 3 percent target, it would cost $6.00. A worker who sends $200 every month would save $81.60 a year if the cost fell to the target.

Region (destination)	Average cost of sending $200, Q4 2023
South Asia	5.8%
East Asia and Pacific	5.8%
Latin America and the Caribbean	5.9%
Middle East and North Africa	5.9%
Europe and Central Asia (excluding Russia)	6.7%
Sub-Saharan Africa	7.9%
Global average	6.4%

Source: World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide database, as published in Brief 40, figure 1.7.

How you send matters as much as where. The brief reports an average cost of 12 percent through banks, 7.7 percent through post offices, 5.5 percent through money transfer operators, and 4.4 percent through mobile operators. Digital remittances, which accounted for 30 percent of transactions in the database, averaged 4.96 percent, against 7.0 percent for non-digital methods. Mobile operators are the cheapest category but account for less than 1 percent of transaction volume.

Corridors vary enormously. The cheapest in East Asia were around 2.5 percent, such as Kuwait to the Philippines and Malaysia to Nepal. The most expensive corridor in that region's chart, South Africa to China, cost 17.1 percent. Among Group of Twenty (G20) source countries, South Africa was the costliest at 12.8 percent and the Republic of Korea the cheapest at 5.3 percent, with a G20 average of 6.5 percent. For a deeper look at the sending side, see our ranking of countries that send the most remittances.

Do remittances help the countries that receive them?

The evidence points in a generally positive direction, with real caveats. At the household level, remittances raise spending power for poorer families, and the Nepal estimate above is one example of a measured poverty effect. At the national level, the steadiness of remittances relative to FDI helps countries finance imports and cover foreign-exchange gaps.

The caveats are about what the flow can and cannot do. Remittances follow migrants, so a country with large remittances has also lost many working-age people, which is a cost the headline figure hides. A large inflow of foreign currency can also strengthen a currency, which in principle makes exports more expensive to foreign buyers. Economists debate how large that effect is in practice, and it depends heavily on each country's policies.

A country's dependence can also leave it exposed to its migrants' host economies, as the Tajikistan and Mexico examples show. The people sending the money are exposed to the same risks: job losses, exchange-rate swings, immigration enforcement, and in some cases cost and discrimination in the financial system.

One claim that deserves caution is that remittances are simply a better version of aid. They reach families directly, while aid is directed by governments and agencies, but the two differ in who controls the money and where it lands. Comparing totals alone does not show which does more good.

What moves the rankings from year to year

The 2023 brief identifies a consistent list of drivers, and they explain most of the changes in the tables above.

Region	2023 remittances	2023 growth	Main driver cited
South Asia	$186 billion	+5.2%	India's skilled migrants; Pakistan's drop offset gains
Latin America and Caribbean	$155 billion	+7.7%	Strong US labor market
East Asia and Pacific	$134 billion	+1.8%	Philippines growth muted
Europe and Central Asia	$71 billion	-10.3%	Ruble fall; weaker Russia-to-Central Asia flows
Middle East and North Africa	$55 billion	-14.8%	Egypt's parallel exchange market
Sub-Saharan Africa	$54 billion	-0.3%	Flat; supported current accounts amid food insecurity and debt strain

Source: World Bank/KNOMAD, Migration and Development Brief 40, table 1.1.

The strongest single force is the labor market in rich host countries. The brief says the recovery of OECD job markets after COVID-19 has been the key driver, with employment growth faster for immigrants than for the native-born in the United States. The second is source-country exchange rates, because a falling ruble or a weaker Gulf currency link reduces the dollar value of what migrants send. The third is oil: the brief links lower GCC outward remittances, down 13 percent in 2023, to the drop in oil prices and OPEC+ production cuts, and also to a Saudi policy letting foreign workers bring their families, which may mean fewer remittances sent to home countries. The fourth, as the Pakistan and Egypt cases show, is the gap between official and street exchange rates in the recipient country. For the background mechanics of the third and fourth, see our explainer on why currency exchange rates change.

How to read a remittance ranking without being misled

Rankings like these are easy to misread. Five checks help.

Look at the denominator. A dollar total says little about economic weight. Pair it with share of GDP, and with population if possible. India's flow per person is small, and Tonga's is huge.

Check the scope. The World Bank headline excludes high-income recipients, so a table of the top ten is a table of the top ten low- and middle-income recipients. The world total in the same brief was $857 billion for 2023, of which high-income countries received $202 billion.

Check the year type. The World Bank uses calendar years. The RBI uses a fiscal year ending in March. The Philippines and Mexico report their own series on different definitions.

Distinguish estimates from final data. The 2024 figures are estimates, and 2025 figures in Brief 40 were forecasts made before the year began. A forecast of $690 billion for 2025 is a modeled expectation, not an outcome.

Remember what is missing. Informal flows can run through hawala-style networks, hand-carried cash, and parallel exchange markets, none of which appear in official statistics. The World Bank itself says the true size is believed to be larger than recorded.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Which country receives the most remittances? A: India. The World Bank estimated $120 billion for 2023 and $129 billion for 2024. Mexico was second, followed by China, the Philippines, and Pakistan in both years.

Q: Which country depends most on remittances relative to its economy? A: It depends on the year. In the 2023 data Tonga led at about 41 percent of GDP, followed by Tajikistan at 39 percent. In the World Bank's 2024 estimates Tajikistan led at 45 percent and Tonga followed at 38 percent. Both are small economies with large emigrant populations.

Q: How much does it cost to send money abroad? A: The global average cost of sending $200 was 6.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the World Bank. Costs were lowest through mobile operators at an average of 4.4 percent and highest through banks at 12 percent. The UN Sustainable Development Goal target is 3 percent by 2030, and prices vary widely by corridor.

Q: Do remittances reduce poverty? A: They add directly to household income, and the World Bank cites an estimated 32 percent reduction in poverty in Nepal associated with sustained remittances of about 25 percent of GDP. The effect varies by country and by who migrates and who receives the money, and remittances are not a substitute for domestic economic development.

Q: Why do different sources give different remittance totals for the same country? A: Sources differ on time period, definition, and what is counted. The World Bank uses calendar years and balance of payments data, the Reserve Bank of India uses a fiscal year and a bank survey, and the Philippine central bank reports its own personal-remittance series. Informal transfers are excluded from all of them.

Q: Why did remittances to Mexico fall in 2025? A: FXC Intelligence reports a 5 percent decline, the largest since 2009, and says many analysts attribute it to changes in US immigration policy. A new 1 percent US tax on cash remittances is another suspect, but cash transfers were only about 1 percent of flows into Mexico, so its direct effect on volumes is likely limited. The causes are still being studied.

Q: Are remittances larger than foreign aid? A: For low- and middle-income countries as a group, yes. In 2023 remittances were $656 billion, against $382 billion of foreign direct investment and $256 billion of official development assistance. Individual aid-dependent countries can still receive more aid than remittances.

The bottom line

Remittances are a second balance of payments hiding in plain sight: hundreds of billions of dollars moving in small amounts, from migrants' wages to family accounts. The dollar ranking (India, Mexico, China, the Philippines, Pakistan) and the dependence ranking (Tonga, Tajikistan, Lebanon, Samoa, Nicaragua) tell different stories, and a careful reader needs both.

The most useful lesson from 2023 and 2024 is how much of the movement in the tables comes from policy and exchange rates rather than from migrants' generosity. Pakistan's drop, Egypt's drop, and the Russia-linked swings in Central Asia were as much about where and how money was sent as about how much. As the Mexico data for 2025 shows, a flow that looks steady for years can still turn when the rules in the host country change.

Sources

• World Bank/KNOMAD, Migration and Development Brief 40: Remittances Slowed in 2023, Expected to Grow Faster in 2024 (June 2024).
• World Bank, Remittances Slowed in 2023, Expected to Grow Faster in 2024, press release (June 26, 2024).
• World Bank People Move blog, In 2024, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries are expected to reach $685 billion (December 2024).
• Reserve Bank of India survey of inward remittances, 2023-24, as summarized by PTI in The Week (March 2025).
• FXC Intelligence, US-Mexico remittances 2025 - The Philippine Star, Remittances reach record-high $38.3 billion, reporting Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas data (February 18, 2025).

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