Estimating global migration flow tables using place of birth data

Guy J. Abel, Wittgenstein Centre (IIASA, VID/ÖAW, WU)

A methodology to estimate global migration flow tables of movements between all countries is illustrated. The estimated tables are based on sequential place of birth migration stock tables, recently released by the World Bank, see Ozden (2011). Using a simple dummy example the basic methodology to derive flows from sequential stock tables is given. This methodology is then applied to the World Bank migration stock data to produce a set of annual global migration flow tables between 1960 and 1999. Selected results are presented. These tables are the first attempt to produce a comparable set of global migration flow estimates, that will ultimately be used as the migration baseline data for the upcoming IIASA-Oxford expert argument-based population projections.