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Relative to other developing regions, sub-Saharan Africa does not have a high migration rate to rich countries. Rather remote, too poor – migration is expensive – and still largely turned towards a Europe that is less open and perhaps less attractive than North America, demography is the region’s only potential migration factor (with the exception of the political situation in these countries, which the paper does not consider). As with all sparsely populated countries, sub-Saharan populations are prone to migrate despite the mitigating effect of low population density in rural areas. The rejuvenation of the region’s population in the 1990s, owing to a demographic transition that is far from having run its course, is likely to have increased the migration rate to rich countries. Indeed, young men are the most susceptible to emigrating. While legal migration to rich countries has increased, it remains proportional to the population of the sub-Saharan continent. Tougher economic constraints for potential migrants during the 1990s and the tightening of immigration laws in rich countries are likely to have partially eased demographic pressures. But this may also have led to substantial clandestine migration, migration confined to neighboring African countries or migration to urban areas. South-South flows and rural exodus are the most common forms of migration for the poorest.