The major Bengali speaking population of the world is concentrated in Bangladesh. Apart from Bangladesh other countries with considerable Bengali speaking populations include but are not limited to: United States of America, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, India, Canada and Italy.

Bengali speaking population in India

There are more than 75 million Bengali speakers in India. This is the second biggest group of Bengali’s found in any country after Bangladesh. India has one of the major Bengali speaking populations because Bangladesh once was a part of undivided India. After India gained independence, Bangladesh became part of Pakistan and later in 1971 became an independent nation. In the process of gaining freedom from Pakistan, there were several Bengali speaking demographics, mainly the educated and Hindus that migrated to India to save themselves from assassination. This population numbered several millions.

The states of India that have a higher concentration of Bengali speakers include: West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and the newly formed state of Jharkhand. There are several other states wherein the Bengali speaking population is scattered but none of these state have more than a million Bengali speakers.

Almost one fourth of the Bengali speaking population in India follows the Islamic religion while other three fourths follow Hinduism. There is a minority Bengali speaking population of nearly 3 percent that follows Buddhism and Christianity.

Bengalis speaking population in United States of America

There are around 200,000 Bengali speaking people scattered in various business hubs of the United States. The concentrated group of Bengali speakers can be found in the states like California, Florida, Michigan, New York and Texas.

The Bengalis in America have mostly been settled for generations and belong mainly to two regions of Bangladesh namely Chittagong and Sylhet. The youths of the Bengali speaking population in America are highly educated and have high paying jobs. This makes them a small but powerful consumer group for corporations to target when marketing their products or services in the United States.

The main religion followed by these Bengali speakers in the United States is Islam, but some follow Hinduism or Christianity.

Bengali speaking population in the Middle East countries

After India, the Middle East region has the third largest Bengali speaking population in the world. Saudi Arabia and The United Arab Emirates together have nearly 3 million Bengali speaking people. Of this number, 70% is in Saudi Arabia while the other 30% is settled in the UAE.