Indian Expats Officially Make Up The Largest Community In Oman

The Sultanate of Oman may not be huge in size

But it does have some fairly large expatriate communities…

And one of which is considered to be the largest expat community in Oman – Indians in the Sultanate make up the largest in the country.

According to new data received about Oman’s population, India has the largest expat community that has succeeded the previous largest expat group from Bangladesh.

The report, released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information, stated that as of October 2018 there are:

• Indians – 664, 227
• Bangladeshis - 663,818

However, the Indian community has seen a decline from last year – in December of 2017, the Indian population accounted for 688,226 people while the expat community of Bangladesh was 692,164.

The report also went further to explain that the vast majority of these expat communities are males:

• Indians in Oman

Females = 48,115
Males = 616,11

• Bangladeshis in Oman

Females = 28,335
Males = 635,283

Why has the expat population in Oman decreased?

Surprisingly from the same time last year, several expat communities in Oman have seen a decline in growth and this is due to the seized issuance of visas.

The government of Oman has stopped issuing visas to migrants to work in the country since September 2016 in efforts to reduce the number of unskilled expat workforces in Oman.

In a move by the Omanisation policy to remove unskilled workforces from the Sultanate and promote more Omani skilled forces, largest expat communities have seen a dip in numbers.

Indians and Bangladeshis have seen a change as well as the expat community of Pakistan.

Pakistani expats have dipped from 234,163 people in 2017 to 219,901 in 2018.