El Salvador Emigration and Immigration

Online Sources

 * 1946-1971 Free Access: Africa, Asia and Europe, Passenger Lists of Displaced Persons, 1946-1971 Ancestry, free. Index and images. Passenger lists of immigrants leaving Germany and other European ports and airports between 1946-1971. The majority of the immigrants listed in this collection are displaced persons - Holocaust survivors, former concentration camp inmates and Nazi forced laborers, as well as refugees from Central and Eastern European countries and some non-European countries.
 * Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild Choose a volume and then choose El Salvador under "Listed by Port of Departure" or "Listed by Port of Arrival".


 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Births and Baptisms, index and images, ($)


 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Banns and Marriages,, index and images, ($)


 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Deaths and Burials, index and images, ($)

Finding the Town of Origin in El Salvador
If you are using emigration/immigration records to find the name of your ancestors' town in El Salvador, see El Salvador Finding Town of Origin for additional research strategies.

El Salvador Emigration and Immigration
"Emigration" means moving out of a country. "Immigration" means moving into a country. Emigration and immigration sources list the names of people leaving (emigrating) or arriving (immigrating) in the country. These sources may be passenger lists, permissions to emigrate, or records of passports issued. The information in these records may include the emigrants’ names, ages, occupations, destinations, and places of origin or birthplaces. Sometimes they also show family groups.

Immigration to El Salvador

 * El Salvador's population is composed of mixed races as well as people of indigenous, European, or Afro-descendant ancestry among smaller diasporas of Middle and Far Eastern groups.
 * Eighty-six per cent of Salvadorans identify with mestizo ancestry. 12.7% of Salvadorans report as White, mostly of ethnically Spanish people, while there are also Salvadorans of French, German, Swiss, English, Irish, and Italian descent.
 * Most Central European immigrants in El Salvador arrived during World War II as refugees from the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Switzerland.
 * There are also small communities of Jews, Palestinian Christians, and Arab Muslims (in particular Palestinians).
 * There are up to 100,000 Nicaraguans living in El Salvador.
 * Among the immigrant groups in El Salvador, Palestinian Christians stand out.

Emigration From El Salvador

 * As of 2004, there were approximately 3.2 million Salvadorans living outside El Salvador, with the United States traditionally being the destination of choice for Salvadoran economic migrants. By 2012, there were about 2.0 million Salvadoran immigrants and Americans of Salvadoran descent in the U.S.[125]
 * The second destination of Salvadorans living outside is Guatemala, with more than 111,000 persons, mainly in Guatemala City.
 * Salvadorans also live in other nearby countries such as Belize, Honduras and Nicaragua. Other countries with notable Salvadoran communities include Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom (including the Cayman Islands), Sweden, Brazil, Italy, Colombia, and Australia.