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Cost of sending money home

Sending remittances still costs about 6.4% of the amount on a global average: more than double the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of 3%, and the World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide website, updated 18 August 2025, shows about 6.36%.

Prices · RPW

Map: average cost of sending remittances to a country, 2023, World Bank World Development Indicators. These figures differ from the global averages in the text.
Map: Fix Planet from World Bank World Development Indicators, average cost of sending remittances to a country, as a percentage of the amount, 2023. The colour bar is percent on a logarithmic scale. Land without a positive 2023 figure stays grey. CC BY 4.0. Boundaries: Natural Earth.

6.4 percent, global average, late 2023

Global average, fourth quarter 2023
6.4%
Remittance Prices Worldwide, 18 August 2025
about 6.36%
Sustainable Development Goal target
3%

What the number is

The World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide (RPW) database tracks the cost of sending a typical small transfer (often benchmarked at $200) across hundreds of country corridors. Migration and Development Brief 40 reported a global average of 6.4% in the fourth quarter of 2023 (up from 6.2% a year earlier). The Remittance Prices Worldwide website, last updated 18 August 2025, highlights a global average near 6.36% across 367 corridors (48 sending / 105 receiving countries).

Why it matters

Every percentage point of fee is money that does not reach households. Digital channels are usually cheaper than non-digital ones; Sub-Saharan corridors have often been among the most expensive. The SDG 10 target is to bring the global average to 3% by 2030: current averages remain well above that line.

How to read it

A global average hides corridor extremes: some corridors cost several times the average. Remittance Prices Worldwide measures the price of a transfer; on its website readers can compare costs corridor by corridor.

Map: average cost of sending remittances to a country, 2023, World Bank World Development Indicators. These figures differ from the global averages in the text.

Sources