The average annual growth rate of Romania’s diaspora population was of 7.3% between 2005 and 2015, according to the United Nations’ 2015 International Migration Report.

This is one of the fastest yearly growth rates in the world. It is below the 13.1% yearly growth rate of the diaspora of the Syrian Arab Republic, but above Poland’s 5.1% and India’s 4.5%.

India had the largest diaspora population in the world, followed by Mexico, the Russian Federation and China, according to the 2015 International Migration Report. In 2015, 16 million persons from India were living outside of their country of birth, compared to 12 million from Mexico. The diaspora of the Russian Federation stood at 11 million, that of China at 10 million, that of Bangladesh at 7 million, and that of Pakistan and Ukraine at 6 million each.

Size wise, Romania’s diaspora stands at about 3.4 million or 17% of the country’s remaining population, according to Macrocosm, quoting United Nations data. This has put Romania in the top 20 countries globally for the size of their diaspora.

More than 2.5 million Romanians are legal residents in other EU member states. Italy and Spain are the European countries with the largest communities of Romanians.

Government pays for study to find out why Romanians emigrated

editor@romania-insider.com