At over 15.6 million, Indian diaspora is world's largest, Gulf nations house biggest share

The Gulf countries have the biggest share of Indian diaspora - nearly 3.5 million in the UAE and 1.9 million in Saudi Arabia.

NEW DELHI: The Indian diaspora is world's largest with more than 15.6 million living abroad and Gulf nations hold the biggest share, the United Nations said in a recent report.

Indians constituted 6% of the total number of migrants, or people living outside the country of their birth, which was estimated at 243 million in 2015.

The report also said that the global migrant population rose by 10% in 2015 compared with the figure recorded in 2010, which means of the 7.3 billion global population in the given year, one of every 30 people was a migrant.

However, the World Migration Report 2018 noted that the growth of the Indian diaspora largely remained static, from 3.2% in 2010 to 3.3% in 2015.

The report also said that nearly half of all migrants worldwide in 2015 were born in Asia, mainly from India, China and other South Asian countries.

Mexico ranked second in terms of diaspora population followed by Russia, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Nearly 72% of the international migrant population were in the working age group of 20 to 64 years, the report, published by the UN agency of International Organisation for Migration, said.

The US has been the main destination for international migrants since 1970, and of the 46.6 million foreign-born people residing in the country in 2015, nearly two million were of Indian origin, it said.

The report further said that the number of foreign-born migrants in the US has almost quadrupled from around 12 million in 1970 to 46.6 million in 2015.

The report is the ninth in the series published by the UN agency since 2000 and aimed at contributing to increased understanding of world migration.