The exit is measurable. Government figures tabled in Parliament put Indian students abroad in 2024, up from 907,404 in 2022. Canada, the US, the UK, Australia and Germany host the largest shares.
This is a cumulative stock of students registered abroad. It is a different dataset from annual departures, where immigration records show between 2021 and 2022. Do not add or merge the two.
But the exit is a minority behaviour, and the framing that treats leaving as the default young aspiration is not supported by the migration literature. Longitudinal work across Ethiopia, India and Vietnam finds that the majority of young people envision a future in their own country, with preferring to stay in their current location outright. Staying is a choice people make for reasons — family, and a belief that a good life is available where they are — not merely a failure to leave.
1.3 million leaving and 371 million staying are the same story told from two ends. The question this site opened with is mostly a question about the ones who stay.