Dubai - Almost 3.5 million of migrants in the UAE are from India, 935,000 from Egypt, and 906,000 from Pakistan.
Published: Wed 17 May 2017, 6:24 PM
Updated: Thu 18 May 2017, 6:52 PM
Which country has the most immigrants per head of its population? It is UAE, according to an analysis by Britain's Daily Telegraph. The paper analysed UN figures to calculate this.
The UAE tops the ranking as 88 per cent of the country's population was born in another country. However, the vast majority of immigrants in the UAE are economic migrants, not refugees, says a World Economic Forum report.
According to figures from the Migration Policy Institute, almost 3.5 million of migrants in the UAE are from India, 935,000 from Egypt, and 906,000 from Pakistan.
Qatar is at the second place with more than 75 per cent of its population foreign-born. Indians are the biggest group of immigrants, numbering 646,000. People from Egypt and Bangladesh form the next largest groups with 164,000 and 160,000 respectively.
Kuwait bagged the third spot as 74 per cent of its population comprises migrants from India, Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Fourth and fifth on the list are small European countries Liechtenstein and Andorra.
Sandwiched between Austria and Switzerland, Liechtenstein is just 25km long and home to only around 40,000 people. Of those, 62 per cent are foreign-born, mostly hailing from Switzerland. Sixty per cent of Andorra's population is immigrants, mostly from Spain.
Analysing the findings, the World Economic Forum report says: At the other end of the scale, countries in Central and South America are attracting the smallest numbers of migrants. In Central America, just 1.2 per cent of the population is migrants. In El Salvador and Nicaragua, for example, only 0.7 per cent of the population is immigrants. In South America, only 1.4 per cent of people were born outside the continent.