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More than a third of Africans want to move permanently to live somewhere else, a new high, according to a 2023 survey by Gallup. In 2012, 29% wanted to migrate; last year the number was 37%.
Africans’ desire to leave their countries has not risen everywhere in the last decade. While more of the populations in Zambia, Mauritius, Ethiopia and Senegal want to leave, the reverse has happened in Gabon, Burkina Faso, the Gambia, Comoros, and — by a lesser degree — Nigeria.
Still, the continent’s overall increased longing to set up home elsewhere mirrors global trends. Some 16% of the global adult population in 2023 wanted to move to a different country, compared with 12% a decade ago, Gallup said.
Even in the United States and Canada — the top two destinations for all aspiring migrants over the past decade — more people said they wanted to move abroad, compared to the previous survey. Only in the European Union was the percentage stable.
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West Africa is the epicenter of the most intense push for migration away from Africa. The Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Nigeria are five of six African countries where at least half the population wants to move abroad, according to Gallup. These countries are also in the top 10 countries worldwide with the highest desire for migration.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has experienced a bubbling wave of migration in recent years, especially driven by young people seeking work, education and security.
A measure of this wave is the increase in companions joining migrant students in their new countries. Between 2018 and 2022, the number of dependents of Nigerian graduate students in the UK shot up from a little over 1,000 to more than 60,000 people. Only India and the Philippines have more foreign educated nurses in the UK than Nigeria, according to the nursing regulator.
Not everyone who wants to leave for a foreign country can, however. “The percentage of people worldwide who have plans to move is much lower than the percentage who would like to move,” Gallup said.