India has the world’s largest diaspora with about 18 million people born there now living abroad, according to John Wilmoth, the director of UN’s Population Division at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Presenting the International Migration Report 2020 on Friday, he said that the US was the top host country for migrants with 51 million of them or 18 percent of the world’s total living there. The report said that between 2000 and 2020, the size of the migrant population abroad grew for nearly all countries and areas of the world with India experiencing the largest gain of nearly 10 million during that period, going from the third place in 2000 for the number of migrants to the first spot in 2020.

The report takes a broad view of migrants, including also students and those going abroad for family reunions in the definition. Explaining the phenomenon of the migration from India, UN’s Population Affairs Officer Clare Menozzi said: “The Indian diaspora is one of the most vibrant dynamic worlds... It’s present in all continents, in all regions.”