On the move

People in Dhaka, Bangladesh walking on the railway track © Fred Hoogervorst/Panos Pictures

More people are on the move than ever before. According to the United Nations, 13 million people - or 2% of the world's population - are moving at any given time. By the 1990s, people in the UK were travelling five times further than people in the 1950s.

Today, 80% of the international movement of people is within North America, and southern & western Europe. But a growing number of people are moving in other parts of the world. Already, 175 million people - 3% of the world's population - live outside their country of birth, and this is expected to rise to 230 million by 2050. And a record number of people are crossing borders, often making long and difficult journeys in search of a better life.

Yet the greater mobility of people has a price to pay. Go to the next page to find out more.

Visit BBC News for a fact file on international migration, and with links to stories of different migrants.
Visit Global Footprints for video clips and case studies on the movement of people.
Visit Global Eye Primary Summer 2001 to find out more about refugees.