World Bank Group · Cost of Sending Remittances
Cost of sending remittances by country
How much does it cost to send $200 home?
Of the 93 countries compared in 2023, Malawi had the lowest reading, -49.693334%, and Cuba had the highest reading, 19.630000%. In the middle country the figure was 3.224584%. Among the 83 countries measured in every edition since 2016, the middle one moved from 7.839245% to 3.351667%.
Share
Cost of sending remittances · 2023
Context statistic
Lowest of 93Malawi
-49.693334%012023 · position · derived
Who leads
The three countries at the lowest end of 93 compared, the three at the other end, and the first on each continent.
1Photo: Rockwurm derivative work: Jjtkk · CC BY-SA 3.0, greyscale
2Photo: Wolfgang Steinkläubl · CC BY-SA 3.0, greyscale
3Photo: uploaded by Chern038 · CC BY-SA 3.0, greyscale
Highest in 2023
Cuba19.630000%
Angola12.784000%
Sierra Leone10.340000%
Where a country sits says how it compares with the others measured, and nothing about why.
02Every measured country
Cost of sending remittances on a map
Each country is shaded by its value, in five groups holding the same number of countries. Hover a country for its value, or select it to open its profile. Below the map, each continent’s middle country.
Darker is a lower value — the better end.
- 5.536667–19.630000%
- 3.569167–5.295555%
- 2.519778–3.459643%
- 1.980000–2.490000%
- -49.693334–1.965000%
- No reading in 2023 (11 measured in an earlier edition)
- Europe
1.937000%
the middle country, of 13 measured · 49 members
Croatia0.266000%
Albania5.600000%Lowest and highest reading in Europe.
- Americas
2.590000%
the middle country, of 18 measured · 48 members
El Salvador2.000000%Cuba19.630000%Lowest and highest reading in Americas.
- Asia
2.805000%
the middle country, of 23 measured · 52 members
Malaysia0.983750%
Tajikistan10.330000%Lowest and highest reading in Asia.
- Africa
3.859972%
the middle country, of 35 measured · 55 members
Malawi-49.693334%Angola12.784000%Lowest and highest reading in Africa.
- Oceania
4 of 21 measured — too few for a middle: Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu.
Fiji3.224584%
Vanuatu9.491667%Lowest and highest reading in Oceania.
- Every region
18 sub-regions, lowest middle country first
- Eastern Europe
1.243611%
the middle country, of 6 measured · 10 members
Ukraine0.717500%
Bulgaria3.459643%Lowest and highest reading in Eastern Europe.
- South-eastern Asia
2.279028%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 11 members
Malaysia0.983750%
Laos4.873333%Lowest and highest reading in South-eastern Asia.
- Southern Asia
2.358156%
the middle country, of 6 measured · 9 members
India1.756750%
Afghanistan9.024333%Lowest and highest reading in Southern Asia.
- Western Africa
2.447292%
the middle country, of 10 measured · 16 members
Senegal0.720000%Sierra Leone10.340000%Lowest and highest reading in Western Africa.
- Central America
2.490000%
the middle country, of 7 measured · 8 members
El Salvador2.000000%
Mexico2.653333%Lowest and highest reading in Central America.
- Southern Europe
2.763125%
the middle country, of 6 measured · 17 members
Croatia0.266000%Albania5.600000%Lowest and highest reading in Southern Europe.
- Western Asia
3.078333%
the middle country, of 6 measured · 19 members
Palestine1.965000%
Lebanon5.278542%Lowest and highest reading in Western Asia.
- South America
3.449584%
the middle country, of 7 measured · 12 members
Ecuador2.295556%
Guyana7.925000%Lowest and highest reading in South America.
- Eastern Africa
5.277528%
the middle country, of 14 measured · 19 members
Malawi-49.693334%
Eritrea9.160000%Lowest and highest reading in Eastern Africa.
- Caribbean
4 of 24 measured — too few for a middle: Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica.
Dominican Republic2.519778%Cuba19.630000%Lowest and highest reading in Caribbean.
- Central Asia
2 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan.
Kyrgyzstan4.220000%Tajikistan10.330000%Lowest and highest reading in Central Asia.
- Eastern Asia
1 of 8 measured — too few for a middle: China.
China2.826365%Lowest and highest reading in Eastern Asia.
- Melanesia
2 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Fiji, Vanuatu.
Fiji3.224584%Vanuatu9.491667%Lowest and highest reading in Melanesia.
- Middle Africa
3 of 9 measured — too few for a middle: Angola, Cameroon, DR Congo.
DR Congo1.980000%Angola12.784000%Lowest and highest reading in Middle Africa.
- Northern Africa
4 of 6 measured — too few for a middle: Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia.
Egypt3.303095%
Algeria7.830000%Lowest and highest reading in Northern Africa.
- Northern Europe
1 of 13 measured — too few for a middle: Lithuania.
Lithuania1.400000%Lowest and highest reading in Northern Europe.
- Polynesia
2 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: Samoa, Tonga.
Tonga4.096667%
Samoa4.594167%Lowest and highest reading in Polynesia.
- Southern Africa
4 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, South Africa.
2 share 1.820000%
Botswana8.412857%Lowest and highest reading in Southern Africa.
03The whole field at once
The spread
93 countries, one dot each, on one scale — further right is a higher value. Half the countries are above 3.224584%; a quarter are above 4.700208%, and a quarter below 2.061250%. The bar in each row marks that continent’s middle country.
04All 104 ever measured
Every country
In order, highest value first — position 1 is the highest value, the way World Bank Group’s own tables read. “=” marks a position shared with another country. World Bank Group ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. Three negative readings are real and published as such — Malawi in 2022 and 2023, Myanmar in 2022 — and happen when the official exchange rate a transfer is priced against sits far enough from the market rate that the effective fee inverts.
Showing 25 of 104 countries
Values for 2023. The change column compares 2023 with 2022 only; the sparkline covers the recent editions.
052016–2023 · 8 reference years
Over time
Each point is one reference year from 2016. Sustainable Development Goal 10.c sets 3% as the ceiling, and most of the world is still above it.
- the middle country
- the middle half of countries
- the middle of the 83 countries measured every time
- each continent’s middle country
The same, year by year
| Year | Countries | Middle country | Middle half | Measured every time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 93 | 3.224584% | 2.061250% – 4.700208% | 3.351667% |
| 2022 | 93 | 2.943333% | 1.875000% – 5.268333% | 2.905185% |
| 2021 | 99 | 3.376851% | 2.326958% – 5.348125% | 3.455000% |
| 2020 | 100 | 3.837753% | 2.694254% – 6.461579% | 3.839563% |
| 2019 | 97 | 4.497500% | 3.123033% – 6.662273% | 4.597730% |
| 2018 | 97 | 4.704383% | 3.454165% – 6.832139% | 4.700971% |
| 2017 | 97 | 6.007880% | 4.497500% – 7.943395% | 6.007880% |
| 2016 | 104 | 7.608890% | 5.826655% – 9.501433% | 7.839245% |
062022 → 2023
Who rose and fell
The biggest changes in value between the two newest editions — reference years recalculated in one report, not two separate publications. Places are shown second, because they also move when other countries do.
Improved most
before → after- Malawi-10.493334% → -49.693334% · 93rd → 93rd−39.200000
- DR Congo7.960000% → 1.980000% · 11th → 75th−5.980000
Madagascar8.420000% → 2.925000% · 8th → 49th−5.495000
Tunisia8.917500% → 5.536667% · 6th → 19th−3.380834
Cabo Verde6.735000% → 3.437500% · 16th → 42nd−3.297500
Worsened most
before → after
Myanmar-9.471111% → 4.040000% · 92nd → 33rd+13.511111- Angola8.183333% → 12.784000% · 9th → 2nd+4.600667
Bangladesh3.442651% → 7.654722% · 42nd → 13th+4.212071
Tanzania1.255556% → 5.295555% · 84th → 20th+4.040000
South Sudan2.570000% → 6.470000% · 54th → 15th+3.900000
93 countries were measured in both 2022 and 2023.
07Across every edition
Cost of sending remittances in records
The extremes of the statistic. A record reached by more than one country names none of them.
Highest reading on record
19.630000%
Average cost of sending $200 home (% of the amount)
Lowest reading on record
-49.693334%
Average cost of sending $200 home (% of the amount)
Biggest improvement between editions
−39.200000
-10.493334% → -49.693334%
Biggest decline between editions
+13.511111
-9.471111% → 4.040000%
Most improved since first measured
−63.851944
14.158610% → -49.693334%
At the top most often
3 of 8
editions, alone at the first-listed end
08The measure
About cost of sending remittances
This is what it costs, on average, to send $200 home to a country — as a percentage of the amount sent. For the countries most dependent on money sent by workers abroad, the difference between a 3% fee and an 8% one is a real amount of household income.
What the number is: Average cost of sending $200 home (% of the amount).
09Where it fits
Connections
Its part in the Country Index, the statistics whose values line up most closely with it across countries, and others on the same subject.
In the Country Index
Context, with no vote
This statistic is published in full under Mobility & Trade and Money & Public Finance, but does not help decide any Country Index standing.
Mobility & TradeMoney & Public FinanceWhich statistics vote, and why
Moves with
Where cost of sending remittances is higher, these tend to be higher too.
No statistic lines up this closely.
Moves against
Where cost of sending remittances is higher, these tend to be lower.
- RISE Energy Efficiency Policy ScoreESMAP · 81 countries in commonρ −0.42
- AI User Share of the Working-Age PopulationMicrosoft AI Economy Institute · 82 countries in commonρ −0.42
- Statistical Performance IndicatorsKeyWorld Bank Group · 90 countries in commonρ −0.42
Rank correlation (ρ, from −1 to 1) across countries, on each statistic’s newest edition, out of 240 statistics sharing at least 80 countries with this one. Two statistics that move together do not cause each other.
10Keep reading
Explore further
The subject
More from World Bank Group
11Questions
Cost of sending remittances: questions and answers
Which country has the lowest cost of sending remittances?
Malawi, at -49.693334%, among the 93 countries compared in 2023.
Which country has the highest cost of sending remittances?
Cuba, at 19.630000%, among the 93 countries compared in 2023.
How many countries does the Cost of Sending Remittances cover?
93 in 2023, and 104 at least once across all editions. The number measured varies from 93 to 104 between editions.
What is the world average cost of sending remittances?
This site does not calculate a world average, which would depend on how countries are weighted. In the middle country of the 93 compared in 2023, the figure was 3.224584%.
Is this World Bank Group’s own ranking?
No. World Bank Group publishes the values but ranks nobody; the position on this page is derived by Nations Inquiry by ordering the published values, and equal values share a position.
How often is the Cost of Sending Remittances published?
This site holds 8 reference years, 2016–2023, all recalculated in World Bank Group’s 2026 report on one method — not 8 separate publications.
Where does the data come from, and can I download it?
From World Bank Group, under CC BY 4.0. From the World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide via its indicator API (SI.RMT.COST.IB.ZS). This is the cost of sending money IN to a country; the outbound series covers too few countries to publish. Every edition is on this site’s Datasets pages as a full table, and downloads as a CSV file with every value unrounded.
12Method
Sources, method and citation
Source
Cost of Sending Remittances — World Bank Group
From the World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide via its indicator API (SI.RMT.COST.IB.ZS). This is the cost of sending money IN to a country; the outbound series covers too few countries to publish.
Newest edition
Report year 2023Data year 2023
Cite the source as: World Bank. Remittance Prices Worldwide. Washington, DC: World Bank Group.
Licence: CC BY 4.0, checked 2026-09-07.
How this page reads the numbers
- World Bank Group ranks nobody on this measure. The position is derived by Nations Inquiry by ordering the published values; equal values share a position.
- Which end is better follows the publisher’s own reading of the measure.
- A country is named at an end only when it holds that value alone. Where several share it, the page says how many and names none first.
- Values are stored exactly as published and trimmed only for display. “The middle country” is the median of the countries measured, not a world average.
The file itself, column by column — where it came from, what each column holds, and every edition as a CSV — is on its dataset page.
Photographs
The countries at the top of this statistic, from their profiles: Wikimedia Commons, shown in greyscale, each used under the licence named.
- Malawi — Rockwurm derivative work: Jjtkk, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Croatia — Wolfgang Steinkläubl, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Ukraine — uploaded by Chern038, CC BY-SA 3.0
Cite this page
Nations Inquiry (2026). Cost of sending remittances by country: Cost of Sending Remittances, data from World Bank Group. https://nationsinquiry.com/statistics/remittance-cost