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Outside India, US has the most foreign-born Hindus: Pew study

The most common migration route for Hindu migrants globally is from India to the United States.

The United States hosts the largest number of foreign-born Hindus outside of India, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. They have 2.6 million Hindus and it constitutes 19 percent of the global Hindu migrant population. 

Hindu migrants represent a small portion of the global migrant population. They make up just 5 percent of all international migrants.13 million Hindus live outside their birth countries, as of 2020. 
 

Infographic. / Pew Research Center

The most common migration route for Hindu migrants globally is from India to the United States. Approximately, 1.8 million Hindus have made this journey. This accounts for 61 percent of all Indian immigrants in the U.S., as of 2020.

North America experienced a significant surge in Hindu migrants between 1990 and 2020, with numbers increasing from 0.8 million to 3.0 million. It marked a 267 percent rise. This sharp increase was largely driven by the growing population of India-born Hindus in the U.S., which jumped from 0.3 million to 1.8 million.
 

Infographic. / Pew Research Center

India, where Hindus are the religious majority, is still the top destination for migrants. Approximately 22 percent of all Hindu migrants, or 3 million people, have relocated to India.

This trend, along with other migration patterns involving Hindus in and out of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, is largely a consequence of the Partition of India in 1947. The subcontinent was divided into predominantly Hindu India and predominantly Muslim Pakistan, with Bangladesh emerging as a separate nation from Pakistan in 1971.

The redrawing of borders during the Partition of India led to significant migrations. Millions of Hindus living in what became Pakistan and Bangladesh moved to India, while millions of Muslims from India relocated to Pakistan or Bangladesh.

Apart from India and the U.S., the only countries where Hindus are the largest group of migrants are Nepal and Bhutan. However, these countries have relatively small populations and are not major destinations for Hindu migrants. Among India's other neighboring countries, only Pakistan ranks as one of the top 10 destinations for Hindu migrants, with 940,000 Hindus residing there.
 

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