The claim states 'one third' (≈33%), while the best available data (IOM/R4V, December 2024) indicate approximately 7.9 million Venezuelans abroad, i.e. about 27–28% of the roughly 28.4 million residents — a difference of roughly 5–6 percentage points.
R4V/IOM figures are based on official reports from host governments and are widely considered to undercount the real diaspora (undocumented migrants, countries outside the 17-country response), so the true share could be somewhat higher than 28%, though still below one third.
No data specific to 2025 or 2026 was retrieved; the most recent verified figure available before the session date (16 September 2026) is the December 2024 count.
The population denominator varies by source (≈28.3M per Our World in Data/Worldometers 2023–2024; ≈29.4M per Macrotrends), which does not change the conclusion.
Sources
PrimaryIOM / R4V — Regional Venezuela SituationAs of December 2024, more than 7.89 million Venezuelans are outside their country of origin, the second largest displacement in the world.