well as in the Palestinian diaspora, comprising around 6–7% of the world's total Palestinian population.. Palestinian Christians live primarily in Arab states surrounding historic Palestine and in the diaspora, particularly in Europe and the Americas. Today, Chile houses the largest Palestinian Christian community in the world outside of the Levant. As many as 350,000 Palestinian Christians reside in Chile, most of whom came from Beit Jala, Bethlehem, and Beit Sahur. Also, El Salvador, Honduras, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, and other Latin American countries have significant Palestinian Christian communities, some of whom immigrated almost a century ago during the time of Ottoman Palestine. Syria There are almost as many Syrian people living outside of Syria (15 million), as within (18 million). Most of the diaspora population is Syrian Christians. They trace their origin to several waves of Christian emigration, starting with the exodus during Ottoman Syria. Syrian Christians tend to be relatively wealthy and highly educated. Under the current nationality law, diaspora Syrians do not have an automatic right of return to Syria. Varying degrees of assimilation and the high degree of interethnic marriages caused most diaspora Syrians have not passed on Arabic to their children, but they still maintain a Syrian ethnic identity. The eruption of the Syrian Civil War in 2011 caused Christians to be targeted by militant Islamists and so they have become a major component of Syrian refugees. In FY 2016, when the US dramatically increased the number of refugees admitted from Syria, the US let in 12,587 refugees from Syria, with 99% being Muslims (few Shia Muslims were admitted). Less than 1% were Christian, according to the Pew Research Center analysis of the State Department Refugee Processing Center data. The religious affiliation of Syria's 17.2 million people in 2016 was approximately 74% Sunni Islam, 13% Alawi, Ismaili and Shia Islam, 10% Christian and 3% Druze. The population has declined by more than 6 million because of the civil war. Turkey Originally, most emigrants from what is now Turkey were Christian subjects of the Ottoman Empire, including Greek refugees. Today, emigration from Turkey consists primarily of Muslims. The percentage of Christians in Turkey fell from 19% (possibly 24% because of Ottoman underestimates) in 1914 to 2.5% in 1927, due to events which significantly impacted the country's demographic structure, such as the Armenian genocide, the massacre of 500,000 Greeks, the massacre of 375,000 Assyrian Christians, the population exchange