Net Migration Board Screensaver
The Net Migration Board screensaver shows a diverging board of net migration by country — the biggest gainers grow green bars to the right, the biggest losers red bars to the left — from the World Bank's open data API. It's free, needs an internet connection, and ESC exits.
How the Net Migration Board screensaver works
The saver calls the World Bank's key-less open data API for the net migration indicator (SM.POP.NETM) with mrnev=1, so each country reports its most recent published value.
Region and income aggregates are filtered out using the World Bank's own country metadata, leaving only real countries.
Gainers and losers extend from a shared centre baseline — green bars right for net inflows, red bars left for net outflows — with values like +1.7M and -340k.
It refreshes hourly; the underlying UN-derived estimates update on the World Bank's own schedule.
A worked example
On current data Ukraine leads the gainers at about +1.7M (returnees), the United States follows at +1.2M, while Pakistan anchors the losers at about -1.2M. In Multi-view it pairs naturally with the World GDP and Median Age boards.
Settings & tips
- Rows per side — how many top gainers and top losers to show (4–10 each).
- Positive values are green and grow rightward; negative values are red and grow leftward from the centre line.
- Net migration is immigrants minus emigrants in the year — a small number can still mean huge flows in both directions.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this real data?
- Yes — the World Bank's net migration indicator, derived from UN Population Division estimates, fetched live from the official open data API.
- Is a key needed?
- No. The World Bank open data API is public, key-less and CORS-enabled, so the browser calls it directly.
- Does it work offline?
- No. It fetches live from the World Bank, so it needs an internet connection; offline it shows a short notice.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
- Why can net migration be negative?
- It's arrivals minus departures. Countries with large emigrant workforces — Pakistan, India, Bangladesh — show negative values because more people leave than arrive in the year.