Indians now make up the largest group of emigrants in the world, but their destination countries have changed significantly over time with the UAE and the USA becoming the top destinations by 2024, according to a new report.
UAE and the USA each hosted 17% of over 18.5 million people of Indian origin living overseas in 2024, making up the world’s largest emigrant population accounting for 6% of all international migrants globally.
One-quarter of Indian out-migrants live in North America, a share that has grown over time, as has migration to Australia and New Zealand, according to an article on International migration from India in Data for India. Meanwhile, although more Indians have moved to Europe in absolute numbers, its share of total Indian migrants has declined, it said.
READ: Trump to revoke legal status of 500,000 migrants (March 24, 2025)
Indian emigration remains concentrated within Asia, particularly in West Asia, where half of all Indian emigrants live. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, consisting of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, host nearly half of all Indian out-migrants.
Between 1990 and 2024, the number of Indian emigrants tripled from 6.5 million to 18.5 million. Their share among global out-migrants has increased from 4% to 6%.
A significant portion of India’s out-migrant population is the historical legacy of the Partition of 1947, and Indian-origin people living in Pakistan accounted for the largest share of Indian out-migrants until the mid-2000s, the report noted.
However, as the Partition generation ages and dies out, this number has been declining. Pakistan is still home to 1.6 million Indian-born individuals, making up nearly 9% of all Indians living abroad in 2024. Nearly nine out of ten Indians living abroad reside in just 10 countries, including Pakistan.
In 1990, Saudi Arabia had the highest number of Indian-born migrants, apart from Pakistan. By 2024, the UAE and the USA were the top destinations, each hosting 17% of Indian emigrants.
As a result of this massive movement of Indians to West Asia, Indians now make up nearly 40% of all immigrants in the UAE, and account for a third of the country’s population. Indians now make up a quarter of the population of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as well.
Indian migrants also form a growing share of the immigrant population in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the USA. They are the largest migrant group in Canada, and the second-largest immigrant group in the USA after Mexicans.
In 2024, over one in three migrants from India were women. Their numbers increased from 2.6 million in 1990 to 6.6 million in 2024.
READ: Republicans move to shut H-1B ‘backdoor’ in universities (July 25, 2025)
Migration patterns differ significantly by gender. While men primarily migrate to GCC countries, women are more likely to move to the USA. In 2024, nearly one-quarter of Indian migrant women lived in the USA.
Unlike in the GCC countries, where male Indian out-migrants far outnumber women, the number of Indian men and women in the USA and UK is nearly equal.
As India does not maintain official data on its emigrant population. Instead, estimates are taken from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), which compiles data from destination countries, according to Data for India.
Most of UN-DESA’s data for estimating international migrant numbers comes from the population censuses of destination countries, along with population registers and surveys, according to Data for India.