Iranian diaspora


The Iranian diaspora is the global population of Iranian citizens or people of Iranian descent living outside Iran.
While Iranian migration has occurred historically, a significant wave of Iranians fled Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution due to political persecution under the new government. This trend has continued and intensified in the 2020s due to economic instability and political unrest.
In 2021, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran published statistics showing that 4,037,258 Iranians were living abroad. This figure includes people of Iranian ancestry in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Israel, Turkey, and Bahrain whose families may have left Iran decades prior to the 1979 revolution, as well as those with partial ancestry. By December 2025, United Nations data indicated that there were 1.6 million Iranian asylum seekers worldwide, suggesting that approximately 1 in every 15 Iranians has left the country.
Over one million people of Iranian descent live in the United States, with significant populations in Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. In early 2026, the Iranian diaspora began holding rallies around the world in support of the 2025–2026 Iranian protests.

Migration waves

Iran has experienced since 1979. The government has proposed the creation of a ministry of immigration following reports indicating critical emigration statistics, largely driven by political instability and economic sanctions.

Statistics by country

CountryIranian diaspora Article
United StatesSteady

Socioeconomic status

Nearly 60 percent of Iranians abroad have earned at least an undergraduate degree. They have some of the highest rates of self-employment among immigrant groups. Many have founded their own companies, including Isaac Larian, the founder of MGA Entertainment, and Pierre Omidyar, who founded eBay in 1995 in San Jose, California. Iranian households in the United States earned on average $87,288 annually as of 2018, and are ranked ninth by income.

Students abroad

According to the Iranian government, 55,686 Iranian students were studying abroad in 2013: 8,883 studied in Malaysia, 7,341 in the United States, 5,638 in Canada, 3,504 in Germany, 3,364 in Turkey, 3,228 in Britain, and the rest in other countries. The Iranian Ministry of Education estimated that between 350,000 and 500,000 Iranians were studying outside Iran as of 2014.

Politics

In 2000, the Iran Press Service reported that Iranian expatriates had invested between $200 and $400 billion in the United States, Europe, and China, but almost nothing in Iran. In Dubai, Iranian expatriates have invested an estimated $200 billion. Migrant Iranian workers abroad remitted less than two billion dollars home in 2006.

High net-worth individuals

RankNameCitizenshipNet worth Source of wealth
1Pierre OmidyarIran

Expatriate fund

The fund's stated goal is to attract investment from Iranian expatriates and to use their experience in stimulating foreign investments.

Religious affiliation

Members of the Iranian diaspora are considered to be mostly secular. The majority of them do not take fundamental Islamic rituals, such as daily prayers or fasting, and have largely embraced Western secularism. According to a 2008 survey by the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans, 42% of Iranian Americans identified as Muslim, 9% as Christian, 6% as Jewish, 5% as Zoroastrian, 7% as Baháʼí, and 31% as other or non-religious. A 2012 national telephone survey of a sample of 400 Iranian-Americans, commissioned by the PAAIA and conducted by Zogby Research Services, asked the respondents what their religions were. The responses broke down as follows: Muslim 31%, atheist/realist/humanist 11%, agnostic 8%, Baháʼí 7%, Jewish 5%, Protestant 5%, Roman Catholic 2%, Zoroastrian 2%, "Other" 15%, and "No response" 15%. The survey had a cooperation rate of 31.2%. The margin of error for the results was ± 5 percentage points, with higher margins of error for sub-groups. Notably, the number of Muslims decreased from 42% in 2008 to 31% in 2012.