Science Transfer Board · From the archive

The longer history of researcher migration.

Name: Scholarly Migration Database: FFP historical explorer
Creator: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Where publishing researchers have moved, year by year. Explore arrivals, departures, and the balance between them, then compare countries, fields, and periods.

History · 1998–2024

Current transfer board

Publication database

Country or area

Field

Measure

Start year

End year

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Comparison start year

Comparison end year

Every selection has its own link. Copy the page address to share this view.

United States · All fields · OpenAlex · 1998–2024

United States: arrivals and departures

Researchers · calendar yearsArrivalsDepartures

Source: Scholarly Migration Database · OpenAlex · 2026 V2 · as of May 31, 2026

United States: net migration

Arrivals minus departures. Above zero means a net gain; below zero means a net loss.

Researchers · calendar years

Source: Scholarly Migration Database · OpenAlex · 2026 V2 · as of May 31, 2026

Reading the archive

Historical estimates track changes in researchers’ publication affiliations. The current transfer board documents individually verified moves among senior scientists. These sources cover different populations and are not directly comparable.

OpenAlex and Scopus cover different publications and resolve author identities differently. Their estimates can disagree, including on whether a country gained or lost researchers. Compare both sources before drawing a conclusion.

Counts are available through 2024. Population denominators and rates stop in 2021. Country-to-country flows stop in 2022. Missing values are left blank, never treated as zero.

These are estimates of moves inferred from publication affiliations, not citizenship or a census of every scientist. Publication delays affect the timing. Changes over time do not establish why researchers moved.

How historical estimates are made →

Compare periods

Annual averages give periods of different lengths equal footing. Counts are the average number of researchers per year. A period is unavailable if any requested year is missing.

Period	Years available	Arrivals / year	Departures / year	Net / year
1998–2024	27 of 27	56,073	59,572	-3,500
1998–2002 (comparison)	5 of 5	28,705	28,109	596

Difference in average annual net migration, selected period minus comparison: -4,096 researchers. This is a descriptive comparison.

United States: where researchers came from and went

OpenAlex · All fields · 1998–2024. Totals across the selected years, ordered by combined arrivals and departures. These are counts, regardless of the chart measure.

Arrivals are moves from each partner into United States; departures are moves from United States to that partner. Net is arrivals minus departures for United States.

Bilateral data is unavailable for the full selected period. View flows through 2022 →

Annual data · 1998–2024

United States, All fields, OpenAlex. Number of researchers. Population is the source denominator; unavailable values remain blank.
Year	Arrivals	Departures	Net	Population
1998	23,975	23,311	664	818,889
1999	26,621	26,169	452	889,162
2000	28,178	27,909	269	954,466
2001	31,059	30,169	890	1,022,585
2002	33,692	32,985	707	1,097,093
2003	34,725	35,804	-1,079	1,167,762
2004	37,746	39,872	-2,126	1,240,257
2005	39,874	44,138	-4,264	1,301,120
2006	41,909	48,391	-6,482	1,356,453
2007	44,932	51,412	-6,480	1,407,879
2008	47,468	53,616	-6,148	1,461,399
2009	50,534	57,718	-7,184	1,517,734
2010	53,778	59,673	-5,895	1,573,739
2011	55,815	62,979	-7,164	1,622,865
2012	59,985	65,315	-5,330	1,670,546
2013	61,248	68,348	-7,100	1,707,268
2014	65,074	70,006	-4,932	1,741,103
2015	68,262	70,888	-2,626	1,773,087
2016	69,471	72,681	-3,210	1,800,787
2017	72,058	75,331	-3,273	1,820,427
2018	74,306	78,037	-3,731	1,836,117
2019	73,538	80,737	-7,199	1,828,766
2020	71,217	75,792	-4,575	1,826,978
2021	79,099	88,491	-9,392	1,781,750
2022	90,679	98,287	-7,608	Unavailable
2023	110,594	106,659	3,935	Unavailable
2024	68,123	63,732	4,391	Unavailable

Sources & downloads

Scholarly Migration Database 2026 V2, published May 31, 2026. Tom Theile, Aliakbar Akbaritabar, and Emilio Zagheni, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. FFP filters the published country aggregates to 1998–2024 and all genders, and scales rates to 1,000 researchers. No new migration events are inferred.

Download OpenAlex country data (CSV)Original data, including bilateral flows Methods paper CC BY 4.0

The CSV includes all countries, fields, and available years in this source. Empty cells mean unavailable. Field codes: all = all fields; AgEnNat = natural sciences, engineering and agriculture; MhS = medical and health sciences; HumSS = humanities and social sciences.