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NEW DELHI: More Indian migrants live in Pakistan than in the US, according to a startling new finding by US think tank Pew Research Centre.

Close to half of India's migrants live in just three countries. About 3.5 million Indians live in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is the top destination country for Indian migrants, Pew said. "Over the past two decades, millions of Indians have migrated there to find employment as laborers," it added.

Pakistan has the second-largest number of Indian migrants, with 2 million, and the US has almost another 2 million, Pew said. It didn't offer any analysis for the figures to do with Pakistan.

Curiously, while India is the top source of international migrants , with one-in-twenty migrants worldwide born in India, according to Pew, it is also one of the world's top destinations for international migrants.

"The overwhelming majority of India's immigrants are from neighboring countries such as Bangladesh (3.2 million), Pakistan (1.1 million), Nepal (540,000) and Sri Lanka (160,000)," Pew said.

Even more confounding is that despite these statistics, India also has one of the world's lowest emigration rates.

"Only about 1% of India's birth population lives outside of the country, a similar emigration rate to that of the US," Pew said.

