9 countries ranked · Compiled September 30, 2026
Tourists Per Resident
One widely cited source gives Andorra both 51 tourists per resident and more than 117, a few paragraphs apart. Both figures are real. They count different people — and almost no ranking of overtourism says which it used.
This one says. Every row below counts only visitors who stayed at least one night, pairs them with the population of the same territory, and states the year of each. That is a narrower number than the ones in circulation, and a comparable one. Where a place’s published figures cannot meet that standard — which is true of almost every famous tourist city — it is shown unranked, with the reason, rather than quietly converted.
Short answer
Andorra receives more international overnight visitors per resident than anywhere else we can evidence — 51.22 for every person who lives there, from 4.20M arrivals against a population of 82,000. Aruba follows at 12.91 and Malta at 6.85. Every figure counts only visitors who stayed at least one night, because including day-trippers and cruise passengers can more than double the same country's ratio — which is why the famous overtourism rankings disagree with each other.
Visitor pressure in numbers
- 9 Countries ranked
- 51× Highest ratio
- 3 Cities, unranked
- 5 Screened out
How the ratio is computed
One basis, stated
Arrivals are international overnight visitors on the UN Tourism definition. Day visitors and cruise passengers ashore for a few hours are excluded. That single choice is what makes these rows comparable with each other — and incomparable with most published rankings.
Both halves, same place
The population has to describe the same territory as the arrivals. Pairing a county’s visitor count with a city’s population inflates the ratio by whatever the difference happens to be, and it is the most common fault in this genre.
Cities are not ranked
City tourism boards publish overnight stays or total visitors, not arrivals. Neither converts into this table without an average length of stay that is rarely published alongside it, so the cities below are shown with their figures and deliberately left unranked.
Countries, ranked
- 1
Andorra
Arrivals 4.20M (2024)
Residents 82,000 (2024)
Per resident 51.22
The most visited place on Earth relative to its size, and the clearest illustration of why this metric needs a stated basis. Counting only overnight visitors gives 51 per resident. Counting everyone who crosses the border — mostly day shoppers and skiers from Spain and France — gives well over a hundred.
- 2
Aruba
Arrivals 1.42M (2024)
Residents 110,000 (2024)
Per resident 12.91
Thirteen overnight visitors for every resident, and that figure deliberately leaves out the cruise calls that dominate Oranjestad's daytime. Include those and the island's daytime population routinely doubles.
Planning a trip? Our guides to Aruba.
- 3
Malta
Arrivals 3.56M (2024)
Residents 520,000 (2024)
Per resident 6.85
Europe's most densely settled state absorbing nearly seven overnight visitors per resident, on an island you can drive across in under an hour. The pressure is spatial rather than seasonal — there is no emptier half of the country to spread into.
Planning a trip? Our guides to Malta.
- 4
Bahamas
Arrivals 1.87M (2024)
Residents 410,000 (2024)
Per resident 4.56
A ratio that looks moderate only because the overnight basis excludes the cruise trade, which is several times larger again. On the total-visitor basis the Bahamas would sit near the top of this table rather than in the middle.
Planning a trip? Our guides to Bahamas.
- 5
Montenegro
Arrivals 2.45M (2024)
Residents 620,000 (2024)
Per resident 3.95
Four visitors per resident nationally, but the arrivals are concentrated on a coastal strip holding a fraction of the population — Kotor and Budva carry a load the national figure completely hides.
- 6
Greece
Arrivals 36.0M (2024)
Residents 10,400,000 (2024)
Per resident 3.46
The highest ratio of any large European country, and the one where the national average is least informative: Santorini and Mykonos operate at multiples of it while much of the mainland sees comparatively few foreign visitors.
Planning a trip? Our guides to Greece.
- 7
Spain
Arrivals 93.8M (2024)
Residents 48,400,000 (2024)
Per resident 1.94
Almost two overnight visitors per resident at national scale, which is extraordinary for a country of this size. It is also where the anti-tourism protest movement has been sharpest — the Balearics and Barcelona run far above the national figure.
Planning a trip? Our guides to Spain.
- 8
France
Arrivals 102.0M (2024)
Residents 68,400,000 (2024)
Per resident 1.49
The most visited country in the world in absolute terms, and only mid-table per resident. France's size is what absorbs it: the arrivals are spread across a large country rather than funnelled into one coast.
Planning a trip? Our guides to France.
- 9
Italy
Arrivals 57.8M (2024)
Residents 58,900,000 (2024)
Per resident 0.98
Almost exactly one overnight visitor per resident — and the country with the loudest overtourism debate in Europe. Proof that the national ratio is the wrong unit for the argument: the pressure is in Venice, Florence and the Amalfi coast, not in Molise.
Planning a trip? Our guides to Italy.
No country matches that. Try clearing the search.
Bars are on a logarithmic scale spanning 0.8 to 60 visitors per resident. The top of this table is more than fifty times the bottom of it; on a linear axis every country below the first would render as the same flat stub.
Cities: shown, not ranked
These are the three cities whose crowding figures are quoted most often. None of them can join the table above, and the reason is different in each case. They are here because leaving them out would be less useful than showing you exactly where the published numbers break — this section is the argument, not an apology for a gap.
-
Venice
Quoted at 600 or moreAround 30 million visitors a year against a historic-centre population under 50,000
Why it is not ranked. The 30 million figure counts day visitors, who are the overwhelming majority in Venice and are precisely who the access fee exists to manage. The population is that of the historic centre alone, not the wider comune, which is several times larger. Pairing the widest visitor definition with the narrowest population produces the biggest possible number.
Our guide to Venice.
-
Dubrovnik
Quoted at 27–32Commonly quoted at 32 visitors per resident; 27 to 1 in the Old Town at peak
Why it is not ranked. The published arrivals are for Dubrovnik-Neretva County — 2.21 million arrivals in the first ten months of 2025 — while the ratio is quoted against the city's population. The county is far larger than the city, so the two halves of the fraction describe different places.
-
Amsterdam
Quoted at about 2923.7 million overnight stays in 2025 against a population under one million
Why it is not ranked. Overnight STAYS are not arrivals. One visitor staying four nights counts four times, so this figure cannot be compared with the arrivals-based country table above without dividing by the average length of stay — which Amsterdam does not publish alongside it.
Our guide to Amsterdam.
The cuts
Screened out, and why 5 categories
Places and whole categories of place that a reader might reasonably expect here. Several are missing for want of a comparable figure rather than for want of visitors — those are named so you can see the shape of the gap rather than guess at it.
- Most major tourist cities — Various Gate 2. City tourism boards overwhelmingly publish overnight STAYS or total VISITORS, not international arrivals. Neither is comparable with the country table, and mixing them is how rival overtourism rankings produce the numbers they do.
- Cruise-dominated ports — Various Gate 2. A passenger ashore for six hours and a visitor staying a fortnight count identically in a total-visitor figure. Until a port publishes the two separately, no honest ratio can be computed for it.
- Vatican City, Monaco and San Marino — Various Gate 3. The resident population is so small, and so unlike a normal settlement, that the ratio stops describing crowding and starts describing an arithmetic artefact. Vatican City would rank first by several orders of magnitude and the number would mean nothing.
- Croatia, Iceland, Austria, Portugal and other strong candidates — Various Gate 1. Very likely to rank high, but the 2024 arrivals figure could not be read off UN Tourism or the national statistics office on the measured date. Named here rather than estimated — these are the first rows the next refresh should add.
- United States, China and other large-population destinations — Various Gate 3 in practice rather than in principle. The ratio is genuinely low and genuinely uninteresting: national scale swamps even very large absolute arrival numbers, which is a property of the denominator rather than a finding about the place.
Compiled on September 30, 2026. International tourist arrivals on the UN Tourism definition — a visitor who crosses a border and stays at least one night. Day visitors and cruise passengers ashore for a few hours are excluded.
Two caveats that matter. Arrivals years and population years are not always the same, so every row prints both. And a visitor who stays a fortnight counts exactly once, as does one who stays a single night — this metric measures how many people come, not how long they stay or how much room they take up while they are there.
A national ratio says nothing about where inside a country the visitors go. Read it as exposure rather than as crowding, and read the cities section above before quoting any city figure from anywhere.
Tourists per resident FAQ
Five questions about the ratio and how it is measured.
Which country has the most tourists per resident?
Andorra, at 51.22 international overnight visitors for every resident — 4.20M arrivals against a population of 82,000. Counting day visitors as well, which many rankings do without saying so, would put the figure above 100. Both numbers get published; they are measuring different things.
Why is Venice not in the ranking?
Because its widely quoted figure — around 30 million visitors against a historic-centre population under 50,000 — pairs the broadest possible visitor count with the narrowest possible population. Most of those 30 million are day visitors, and the comune is several times larger than the historic centre. Venice appears below the table with its figures shown and the problem explained, rather than ranked on a basis that would not match any other row.
What counts as an international tourist arrival?
On the UN Tourism definition, someone who crosses an international border and stays at least one night. A cruise passenger ashore for six hours does not count, and neither does a day shopper crossing from a neighbouring country. This matters enormously for small countries — it is the difference between Andorra ranking at 51 and at over 117.
Does a high ratio mean a country is overcrowded?
Not on its own. A national ratio hides where the visitors actually go. Italy sits at almost exactly one visitor per resident and has the loudest overtourism debate in Europe, because the pressure is concentrated in Venice, Florence and the Amalfi coast rather than spread across the country. Read the ratio as exposure, not as crowding.
How current are these figures?
Arrivals are 2024 figures, the most recent full year available, compiled on September 30, 2026. 4 rows were read from UN Tourism directly and the rest are marked corroborated. Populations are same-year estimates; every row states both years so you can see where they differ.