Who is a South Asian?

A South Asian is a person whose ethnic roots originates from the South Asian countries of either Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldive Islands, Nepal, Pakistan or Sri Lanka.

There are approximately 1. 4 billion South Asians, the majority of them below 35 years of age with the average in the 15-20 age bracket.

Map Of South Asia

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldive Islands, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Why is the term South Asian used?

The term South Asian is adopted by the United Nations because it is inclusive and describes the people groups from South Asia. There is a common vocabulary to be used instead of Asian, Indians, East Indians, Indo-Canadians, American Indians, West Indians, North Indians, South Indians or other regional terms.

What is the South Asian Diaspora?

The word Diaspora comes from the Greek word meaning scattering or dispersion.

The South Asian Diaspora are people of South Asian descent originating from either Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldive Islands, Nepal, Pakistan or Sri Lanka and living elsewhere now.

Globally, the South Asian Diaspora number close to 22 million people as of 2005.
 
This number is rapidly increasing as global migration of educated and skilled South Asians occur especially to the Western World of Europe, North America, Australia/New Zealand and other developed countries. Other large concentrations of the South Asian Diaspora are in the Middle East, South-East Asia, South Africa and South America. 
 
The largest South Asian Diaspora group is in the UK numbering close to 2 million people.
 
London, Vancouver, Durban, Toronto, Kuala Lumpur and Dubai have high percentages of South Asians among its city population.