Society · Migration

Thirty-four years of Indians abroad, in one map

In 1990, half of the people born in India who lived abroad were in a neighbouring country. By 2024 there were 1.85 crore, almost three times as many, and most lived in the Gulf or the West.

The Visual Case8 October 20261-minute read

World map of people born in India living abroad in 2024, one grain for every 10,000 people: 1.85 crore in total, 83 lakh (44.8%) in six Gulf countries. Largest: UAE 32.5 lakh, United States 31.7 lakh, Saudi Arabia 19.5 lakh. — Source: UN DESA, International Migrant Stock 2024; the Gulf states and some others count citizens, not birthplace. Map: Natural Earth.

People born in India living in each destination, 1990–2024. UN DESA mid-year estimates; Indian citizens where a country counts citizenship, as the Gulf countries do.
Destination	Group	1990	1995	2000	2005	2010	2015	2020	2024
United Arab Emirates	Gulf	4,56,794	6,57,380	8,88,393	12,62,523	21,68,857	27,31,583	28,61,045	32,48,545
United States	West	4,44,698	5,97,182	11,09,195	14,19,053	17,99,127	23,81,638	27,41,155	31,65,238
Saudi Arabia	Gulf	8,34,742	9,22,696	9,69,679	12,02,498	15,15,540	19,20,159	18,88,090	19,53,496
Pakistan	Neighbour	28,18,248	23,65,884	21,01,039	19,98,814	19,43,345	17,09,217	15,97,134	15,97,134
Kuwait	Gulf	3,68,811	3,37,135	4,14,688	4,93,361	6,74,272	9,67,163	11,22,750	12,31,094
United Kingdom	West	4,05,445	4,33,162	4,62,269	5,61,720	7,00,150	8,17,881	9,46,151	10,44,779
Canada	West	1,62,668	2,28,383	3,00,208	4,18,282	5,48,591	6,99,110	8,66,951	10,15,630
Australia	West	54,882	76,321	91,042	1,49,237	3,26,913	4,48,940	7,07,980	8,76,074
Oman	Gulf	1,85,280	1,89,450	1,93,713	2,13,992	2,82,567	6,42,934	6,21,187	8,03,105
Qatar	Gulf	1,905	2,531	3,381	1,92,498	5,23,305	7,99,493	6,88,077	7,36,955
Nepal	Neighbour	3,69,370	5,15,578	5,43,594	5,14,650	4,61,186	4,46,113	4,26,941	4,12,190
Singapore	Elsewhere	48,762	73,539	1,08,733	1,49,282	2,63,621	3,21,966	3,36,901	3,77,038
Bahrain	Gulf	61,818	77,438	88,742	1,50,694	2,50,789	2,81,418	3,06,551	3,27,698
Germany	West	32,522	40,100	40,419	45,157	52,489	86,572	1,52,372	2,67,343
Italy	West	9,590	16,142	26,127	58,163	98,675	1,30,430	1,67,256	1,86,967
New Zealand	West	9,270	12,386	19,797	40,298	58,441	91,412	1,29,231	1,49,677
Malaysia	Elsewhere	0	8,278	18,934	1,34,947	95,112	1,39,751	1,39,751	1,39,751
Netherlands	West	7,592	9,249	10,904	12,310	17,742	25,575	48,706	76,806
Ireland	West	738	1,104	3,069	8,174	16,348	20,363	42,645	70,228
France	West	21,247	26,265	32,732	41,999	47,392	53,809	61,647	66,688
Spain	West	3,709	5,560	8,189	20,632	35,709	36,397	55,786	66,624
Sweden	West	8,063	9,921	10,978	13,294	17,201	22,539	41,743	62,598
Thailand	Elsewhere	6,107	6,105	9,991	27,475	44,959	49,584	53,300	56,847
Japan	Elsewhere	3,002	5,201	9,477	15,980	22,525	27,029	41,744	49,313
Bhutan	Neighbour	20,841	24,485	28,128	35,256	42,383	44,732	46,974	48,810
Bangladesh	Neighbour	13,339	18,075	22,811	27,687	32,301	34,431	33,762	46,385
Belgium	West	4,945	6,650	8,946	12,106	15,994	20,286	27,351	33,480
Myanmar	Neighbour	41,093	37,969	35,038	29,680	27,316	26,205	27,325	28,256
South Africa	Elsewhere	12,245	11,709	16,743	27,229	28,784	34,185	32,302	27,674
Switzerland	West	7,388	8,887	10,746	13,532	16,397	20,080	23,761	27,635
Israel	Elsewhere	16,824	18,621	18,763	18,465	18,245	19,585	22,343	23,441
Indonesia	Elsewhere	2,054	179	13	10	15	3,649	13,142	22,758
Denmark	West	2,835	3,475	4,353	5,670	8,124	10,620	15,403	20,963
Philippines	Elsewhere	2,928	4,498	6,068	7,638	9,336	14,659	19,801	19,801
Hong Kong	Elsewhere	12,064	13,464	14,864	16,228	17,632	18,019	18,788	19,427
Austria	West	4,665	5,970	7,529	10,980	11,544	13,380	15,688	19,411
Norway	West	4,422	4,621	5,130	5,806	8,132	11,845	14,726	16,374
Maldives	Neighbour	951	6,418	11,427	13,773	13,568	13,364	14,596	15,642
Greece	West	5,351	6,117	6,983	8,679	10,751	10,130	10,353	10,998
Sri Lanka	Neighbour	39,329	35,506	31,618	24,499	10,529	10,658	10,837	10,957
Portugal	West	1,939	4,184	6,600	7,355	6,889	7,809	8,957	10,076
Mauritius	Elsewhere	515	1,483	3,278	5,252	7,517	8,651	8,778	8,855
Panama	Elsewhere	1,474	1,738	2,112	2,696	3,828	4,481	5,383	8,212
Finland	West	549	768	986	2,545	3,624	5,159	6,954	8,186
China	Neighbour	7,571	8,879	10,567	12,578	14,726	10,522	7,235	7,765
Tanzania	Elsewhere	4,968	6,308	6,642	7,198	7,629	8,010	7,135	7,744
Zambia	Elsewhere	4,284	3,854	3,468	4,007	4,630	4,078	5,709	7,569
Russia	West	9,801	8,083	6,072	5,893	5,486	6,144	6,870	7,456
Seychelles	Elsewhere	1,276	1,651	2,026	3,907	5,788	6,482	6,628	6,735
Botswana	Elsewhere	1,967	2,375	3,032	3,936	4,863	5,282	5,650	5,964
Czechia	West	0	0	170	506	1,260	2,376	4,312	5,675
Taiwan	Elsewhere	427	690	954	1,237	1,535	2,454	4,322	5,550
Libya	Elsewhere	2,288	2,902	3,564	3,928	4,310	4,826	5,167	5,462
Ukraine	West	4,609	4,459	4,364	3,987	3,804	3,816	3,879	3,931
Hungary	West	978	867	755	928	1,108	1,110	3,217	3,795
Mexico	Elsewhere	292	364	449	628	911	1,683	2,763	3,620
Brunei Darussalam	Elsewhere	2,595	2,742	2,889	2,953	3,017	3,081	3,357	3,596
Luxembourg	West	187	177	170	147	127	193	2,791	3,224
Sudan	Elsewhere	2,259	2,304	2,351	2,397	1,396	1,277	1,764	3,066
Cyprus	Elsewhere	684	967	1,250	1,880	2,885	2,648	2,732	2,900
Mozambique	Elsewhere	900	1,238	1,441	1,980	2,256	2,338	2,455	2,559
Brazil	Elsewhere	854	793	751	824	860	1,020	2,046	2,433
Madagascar	Elsewhere	1,171	1,037	1,152	1,282	1,425	1,581	1,751	1,902
Chile	Elsewhere	243	332	467	657	877	1,297	1,625	1,865
Malawi	Elsewhere	1,362	2,683	2,583	2,462	2,419	2,083	1,770	1,727
Poland	West	100	152	231	488	1,202	1,334	1,313	1,624
Trinidad and Tobago	Elsewhere	768	697	620	665	926	959	1,064	1,531
South Sudan	Elsewhere	0	0	0	0	1,364	1,414	1,449	1,501
Malta	West	130	152	194	228	215	364	791	1,375
Fiji	Elsewhere	1,443	1,374	1,292	1,169	1,255	1,292	1,321	1,347
Kazakhstan	Elsewhere	1,882	1,315	1,014	1,033	1,071	1,110	1,150	1,190
Latvia	West	35	54	74	89	102	131	1,290	1,188
Jamaica	Elsewhere	711	962	1,213	1,183	1,152	1,127	1,148	1,166
Egypt	Elsewhere	713	861	1,040	1,211	1,534	0	1,207	1,141
Ghana	Elsewhere	454	452	506	712	708	871	999	1,116
Curaçao	Elsewhere	656	656	656	656	588	637	742	1,038
Sint Maarten (Dutch part)	Elsewhere	732	732	732	411	801	834	880	920
Sierra Leone	Elsewhere	405	395	385	341	539	855	959	892
Bulgaria	West	163	149	135	137	138	251	553	760
Namibia	Elsewhere	997	953	886	700	674	659	704	747
Belize	Elsewhere	247	256	265	292	502	592	670	742
Estonia	West	25	39	53	82	111	318	712	725
Serbia	West	1,073	1,030	981	939	877	819	765	714
Cayman Islands	Elsewhere	44	84	144	324	535	582	648	708
Bahamas	Elsewhere	160	194	229	391	552	598	640	677
Tajikistan	Elsewhere	935	760	654	630	628	617	618	620
Peru	Elsewhere	11	10	78	153	219	292	384	599
Lithuania	West	216	169	132	124	95	11	567	597
Iceland	West	62	105	148	213	272	305	389	588
Bermuda	West	156	220	242	336	445	493	572	585
Lesotho	Elsewhere	308	266	215	219	223	318	419	522
Liberia	Elsewhere	774	756	742	546	712	817	631	520
Aruba	Elsewhere	39	98	157	238	315	330	368	505
Colombia	Elsewhere	67	77	94	116	181	288	414	503
Barbados	Elsewhere	441	481	522	480	441	463	467	471
North Korea	Elsewhere	178	198	217	274	330	363	370	377
Ecuador	Elsewhere	12	12	77	130	232	245	301	317
Slovenia	West	11	22	19	49	83	143	234	265
Iraq	Elsewhere	179	211	200	233	238	232	234	237
Venezuela	Elsewhere	229	226	221	232	246	258	242	231
Slovakia	West	7	45	97	401	122	155	194	211
Saint Lucia	Elsewhere	49	65	90	165	228	218	214	207
Guadeloupe	Elsewhere	80	107	133	163	193	184	181	180
Tonga	Elsewhere	140	158	177	206	220	188	177	169
Papua New Guinea	Elsewhere	239	244	182	182	154	156	156	157
Bolivia	Elsewhere	125	123	119	106	92	108	118	132
Mongolia	Elsewhere	24	26	29	56	90	111	117	124
Cambodia	Elsewhere	44	116	187	146	105	95	101	107
Dominican Republic	Elsewhere	287	319	351	221	91	94	97	105
Eritrea	Elsewhere	39	54	70	83	99	119	103	92
Faroe Islands	West	14	24	38	56	58	63	72	86
Antigua and Barbuda	Elsewhere	32	49	65	70	74	79	81	84
Costa Rica	Elsewhere	35	31	42	28	55	54	64	77
Croatia	West	0	0	0	34	67	67	61	58
British Virgin Islands	Elsewhere	20	24	27	31	35	40	45	50
Belarus	West	24	37	50	48	46	48	46	45
Guinea	Elsewhere	0	0	0	0	0	49	45	44
French Polynesia	Elsewhere	35	38	41	42	41	38	38	38
Georgia	Elsewhere	0	0	32	30	30	31	30	31
Liechtenstein	West	0	0	0	11	23	27	27	29
Dominica	Elsewhere	10	13	15	19	24	28	27	28
Nicaragua	Elsewhere	12	10	15	22	23	24	24	25
Puerto Rico	Elsewhere	96	101	108	84	51	49	21	19
El Salvador	Elsewhere	18	14	10	11	11	11	11	11
All destinations		65,75,416	69,00,228	77,78,792	95,00,673	1,23,50,515	1,52,77,263	1,65,32,761	1,85,33,845

From next door to the Gulf, then the West

In 1990, the map’s first year, 65.8 lakh people born in India lived abroad and half of them lived next door. The largest group, 28.2 lakh, was in Pakistan: mostly people born before Partition in 1947, when the two were one country. As that generation ages, the group shrinks. It was 16 lakh in 2020, the latest year with a new estimate.

Then the Gulf takes over. Between 1990 and 2015, the number in the six Gulf countries rose from 19.1 lakh to 73.4 lakh, and in 2010 the UAE overtook Pakistan as the largest single destination. At its peak, in 2015, the Gulf held 48% of everyone counted.

Since then, the West has done most of the growing. Between 2015 and 2024 it added 23 lakh people, more than twice the Gulf’s 9.6 lakh. The United States now has 31.7 lakh, seven times its 1990 figure and almost level with the UAE.

The Gulf is still home to 83 lakh, 44.8% of the total and more than North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand combined. But the map counts where people live, not how they got there: a shrinking cluster can mean deaths, returns or moves elsewhere.

Primary sources

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, International Migrant Stock 2024: destination and origin workbook, Table 1, origin India, mid-year 1990–2024 (CC BY 3.0 IGO). Downloaded 28 September 2026.
Natural Earth: land at 1:110m, drawn as one shape without borders, and Admin 0 countries at 1:50m for each destination’s label point (public domain).
GeoNames: the label point for Guadeloupe.