The Diaspora Atlas dataset
The first openly published, documented dataset of the Seychellois diaspora. Download it, check it, cite it, build on it. Free under CC BY 4.0.
This is the Seychellois Diaspora Atlas dataset: Seychelles-born emigrant stock by destination country and year, 1990 to 2024, taken from the UN DESA 2024 revision and reconciled against destination censuses. It is free to download and reuse under CC BY 4.0. Read the data-quality note before citing the destination breakdown.
The counted emigrant stock rose from about 10,500 in 1990 to 22,200 in 2024. Read the next chart before trusting the destinations, because most of this total sits in a single questionable figure.
Source: UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024, origin-by-destination matrix (extracted by Seychelles Abroad) · download the data
Mozambique alone holds 80% of the UN total, while the United Kingdom, Canada and France, the diaspora's known hubs, do not appear at all. That pattern is the reason this Atlas leads with destination censuses, not the UN bilateral figures.
Source: UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024, origin-by-destination matrix (extracted by Seychelles Abroad) · download the data
The full table
Seychelles-born emigrant stock by destination country, both sexes, from the UN DESA 2024 revision. Countries with fewer than ten are omitted here but included in the download.
| Destination | 1990 | 1995 | 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mozambique | 6,212 | 8,545 | 9,939 | 13,647 | 15,553 | 16,123 | 16,940 | 17,655 |
| Australia | 2,894 | 2,918 | 2,774 | 2,895 | 2,977 | 3,025 | 2,831 | 2,623 |
| Italy | 588 | 670 | 741 | 832 | 918 | 941 | 885 | 777 |
| South Africa | 357 | 372 | 289 | 285 | 325 | 377 | 426 | 460 |
| United Republic of Tanzania | 214 | 286 | 305 | 345 | 355 | 374 | 332 | 360 |
| Mauritius | 43 | 39 | 58 | 80 | 108 | 124 | 124 | 125 |
| Namibia | 84 | 80 | 75 | 59 | 56 | 54 | 57 | 60 |
| Sri Lanka | 0 | 2 | 5 | 12 | 26 | 25 | 24 | 24 |
| Greece | 41 | 37 | 33 | 29 | 26 | 24 | 23 | 24 |
| Denmark | 15 | 19 | 22 | 18 | 17 | 21 | 21 | 18 |
| Norway | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| Botswana | 45 | 67 | 95 | 147 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 10 |
| Luxembourg | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 10 |
Women have been the majority of Seychellois abroad for three decades, 54.8% in 2024. It is one of the few points where the UN data and the secondary literature agree.
Source: UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024, origin-by-destination matrix (extracted by Seychelles Abroad)
How to cite this dataset
Seychelles Abroad (2024.1). Seychellois Diaspora Atlas, emigrant stock by destination, 1990–2024. Derived from UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024. https://seychellesabroad.org/atlas/data/ (CC BY 4.0).
When you use the underlying numbers, please also credit the primary source, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Our contribution is the extraction, the reconciliation and the documentation, not the original enumeration.
- United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. International Migrant Stock 2024 (POP/DB/MIG/Stock/Rev.2024). 2024. original · archived accessed 2026-07-15The current revision, covering 1990–2024. We extracted the Seychelles-origin totals and the full origin-by-destination matrix directly from the official workbooks. This is the primary source for the Diaspora Atlas.
- United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. International Migrant Stock 2020. 2020. original · archived accessed 2026-07-14The superseded 2020 revision. The widely-quoted 36,788 (37.4%) figure is attributed to UN data of this era but does not match the current 2024 revision (about 22,000); see the Atlas methodology.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2016 Census of Population and Housing — country of birth: Seychelles. 2016. original · archived accessed 2026-07-14About 2,500 Seychelles-born residents in Australia, concentrated in Perth and Melbourne.
- Office for National Statistics (UK). Census 2021, TS012 Country of birth (detailed), England and Wales. 2021. original · archived accessed 2026-07-15The authoritative count of Seychelles-born residents in England and Wales, which the UN bilateral series omits entirely.
- Statistics Canada. 2016 Census — immigrant population by place of birth: Seychelles. 2016. original · archived accessed 2026-07-14About 740 Seychelles-born in the Montréal census metropolitan area, Canada's largest cluster.
- International Organization for Migration. Migration in Seychelles: A Country Profile 2013. 2013. original · archived accessed 2026-07-15The last comprehensive institutional study of Seychellois migration, including return migration (~20,000 returns in the preceding decade).
Cite this page
This page is a stable reference. Its URL will not change, its content is reviewed on a stated cycle, and our original text is licensed CC BY 4.0, so you may quote and reuse it with attribution. Every source above carries a live link and an archived copy.
Seychelles Abroad. (2026, July 15). The Diaspora Atlas dataset. https://seychellesabroad.org/atlas/data/“The Diaspora Atlas dataset.” Seychelles Abroad, 15 July 2026, seychellesabroad.org/atlas/data/.Seychelles Abroad. “The Diaspora Atlas dataset.” Last reviewed July 15, 2026. https://seychellesabroad.org/atlas/data/.