The year 2024 is the deadliest on record for migrants, according to new data released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The announcement, published by the UN migration agency, confirms that more people died on migration routes last year than in any year since the organization began systematically counting these deaths.

The IOM released the finding through its official data channels, marking a grim milestone in a record-keeping effort that stretches back more than a decade. The agency's Missing Migrants Project has tracked deaths along migration corridors worldwide, and 2024 now stands at the top of that series.

What does the new data show?

The IOM's finding is blunt: no previous year in the organization's records matches the death toll recorded in 2024. The agency described 2024 as the deadliest year on record for migrants worldwide.

The count covers people who died or went missing while migrating — along land routes, at sea, and in transit through deserts, rivers and border regions. The IOM has long maintained that its figures represent minimum estimates, because many deaths go unrecorded and unidentified.

Who is affected?

The data concerns migrants on the move across every major region the IOM monitors. The record death toll reflects the cumulative toll of dangerous crossings, remote transit routes and limited rescue capacity along corridors that hundreds of thousands of people travel each year.

For the families of the missing and dead, the IOM has stressed that each number in the dataset represents a person. The agency's reporting has repeatedly called for safer, more regular migration pathways as the structural answer to these deaths.

What happens next?

The IOM says the 2024 record underscores the human cost of irregular migration and the urgent need for expanded safe channels. The agency continues to collect and verify data through the Missing Migrants Project, and it updates its public records as new information arrives from field teams, governments and civil society partners.

Readers seeking the underlying figures and methodology should consult the International Organization for Migration's official publications and the Missing Migrants Project database, which the agency maintains as the authoritative record of these deaths.

The record set in 2024 now stands as the benchmark against which the IOM will measure every year that follows.