India has witnessed the highest number of dollar-millionaires who have left the country since 2014, according to research done by a team led by Ruchir Sharma, head of emerging markets and chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

The report said that close to 23,000 dollar-millionaires have shifted to other countries since 2014, with 7,000 of them saying goodbye to India in 2017 alone. This figure has given the nation the unwanted tag of being the country with the most millionaire migrations since 2014, trailing behind were China and France.

The data, presented by Ruchir at a media event last week, showed that 1.3% of millionaires in France and 1.1% in China have left their respective countries, which is only about half of India’s figure of 2.1%.

The survey by Ruchir’s team took into account raw data from 150,000 millionaires all across the globe, which was provided by NW Wealth organisation. A millionaire refers to a person whose net assets are worth more than $1 million (close to Rs 6.5 crore), who are residing and employed in India, including expats.

“In 2015, the net outflow of millionaires from India was 4,000 and last year it was 7,000,” Ruchir said in an interview to Financial Express.

“One likely reason that Indian millionaires are leaving is due to the anti-corruption and regulatory crackdown in India, resulting in wealthy Indians wanting to move their capital elsewhere,” Ruchir added, on what might have prompted the sudden increase in the exodus of the rich from India.

Ruchir also pointed out that ‘leaving India’ referred to Indians physically leaving the country and spending 6 months or longer in another country. The data is said to exclude individuals who have bought houses abroad but have not physically moved from India.

Indian millionaires leaving the country count USA, UAE, Canada, Australia and New Zealand among their most preferred destinations, according to the report.