Visualising migration: Which countries do Indians migrate to, and who migrates to India?

Migration is a function of both ‘push’ factors like poverty, war, crime, political instability and crop failure and ‘pull’ factors like better employment opportunities, political safety, better services and low crime.

In 2013, around 13.9 million people migrated from India to 136 countries or territories around the world*. The top 5 countries account for 66 percent of all migration outflows – UAE (16.3 percent), USA (14.8 percent), Saudi Arabia (14.8 percent), Pakistan (14.4 percent) and Nepal (5.8 percent). Other popular destinations include UK, Kuwait, Oman, Canada and Qatar.

Likewise, nearly 5.3 million people migrated to India from 36 countries around the world in 2013 **. The top 5 countries account for 98 percent of all inflows – Bangladesh (62 percent), Pakistan (21 percent), Nepal (11 percent), Sri Lanka (3 percent) and Myanmar (1 percent).

Overall, the population migrating from India is over 2.6 times the population migrating to India.

FirstData has visually represented the outflows and inflows of migrant populations from, and to India.

(*78 countries have 0 migrants from India; they have been excluded. ** 178 countries have 0 migrants to India; they have been excluded)

Source: World Bank