FAQ
How fast is Bhutan's emigration growing?
Very fast. The number of Bhutanese living abroad grew nearly nine-fold in 21 years — from roughly 8,979 to approximately 77,000 across 112 countries, about 9.8% of the resident population, or nearly one in ten Bhutanese. The single largest concentration, around 40,000, is in Australia. For a country of about 784,000 people, a diaspora approaching one in ten is a structural shift, not a statistical footnote.
The trajectory matters more than any single year’s number. A diaspora that took decades to reach a few thousand has, since the late 2010s, accelerated to roughly 77,000 — nearly a nine-fold rise in about two decades.
At about 9.8% of the resident population, Bhutan has reached the kind of diaspora share usually seen in countries with long, established labour-export economies. This is recent economic and student migration — distinct from earlier episodes in Bhutan’s history — and its scale is examined in Paradox #48 and Paradox #13.