19% of Morocco’s adult population would like to leave the country, says a new survey

«How much would the population of your country change if everyone who wanted to move to another country actually moved where they wanted ?». This is the question research company Gallup asked when conducting the «Potential Net Migration Index», a report that presents the estimated number of adults who would like to move permanently out of a country if the opportunity arose.

The index’s findings were based on interviews with nearly «half a million adults in 152 countries between 2015 and 2017», including the Kingdom of Morocco.

In its report the American organization highlighted the gains and losses a country’s adult population would have by measuring those who would like to move out of their country and the ones who would like to move into it.

In Morocco, the Potential Net Migration Index (PNMI) reaches -19%. According to the report «the higher the score, the larger the potential net population gain. Negative scores indicate net population loss».

Adult population and migration in Morocco

This means that the Kingdom is expected to lose 19% of its population. 29% of this group of people are youngsters. The trend is higher in other neighboring countries, including Algeria which would lose 31% of its population because of migration.

Tunisia, Mauritania, and Libya are expected to lose 27%, 25% and 16% of their adult population, respectively.

In a note related to the index, Gallup indicated that the results of the survey do not «predict migration patterns, but it provides useful information about the people these countries are attracting from around the world and the areas where leaders need to work to ensure they retain the talent already at home».

The report comes as several countries ratified on Monday the 10th in Marrakech the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. Gallup says that «while critics of the agreement fear it would open the doors to unchecked mass migration, Gallup's latest Potential Net Migration Index (PNMI) actually shows that in most of the countries that are refusing to sign, more people want to leave them than come to them».

The same index shows that «the populations in all other major regions -- sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and Asia -- would shrink».