The Iranian diaspora refers to Iranian people or those who are of Iranian ancestry living outside Iran.
This includes the varying ethnicities of the Iranian people including the following groups: Persians, Azeris, Kurds, Lors, Baluchs, Arabs, Turkomens, Assyrians, and Armenians.
In 2021, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran published statistics, which showed that 4,037,258 Iranians are living abroad, an increase from previous years. Many of them live in North America, Europe, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Australia and the broader Middle East. Other studies have estimated about 1.5 million or fewer Iranians living abroad. Many of them migrated to other countries after the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
Statistics by country
Socioeconomic status
Nearly 60 percent of Iranians abroad have earned at least an undergraduate degree, and have one 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 earn on average $87,288 annually, 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
Hrant Markarian, Chairman of Armenian Revolutionary Federation
Sam Dastyari, Senator
Seema Kennedy, Member of the House of Commons
Haleh Afshar, Member of the House of Lords
David Alliance, Member of the House of Lords
Amir Khadir, Member of the National Assembly of Quebec
Reza Moridi, Member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Majid Jowhari, Member of the Parliament of Canada
Ali Ehsassi, Member of the Parliament of Canada
Pouria Amirshahi, Former Member of the French National Assembly
Mahmoud Khayami, founder of Iran Khodro
Pierre Omidyar, investigative journalist for Honolulu Civil Beat and First Look Media, also founder of eBay Patrick Ali Pahlavi, member of the Pahlavi dynasty Yasmin Fahimi, general secretary of the Social Democratic Party Sahra Wagenknecht, Member of the Bundestag and deputy chairperson of the Left Party Omid Nouripour, Member of the Bundestag, (Alliance '90/The Greens) Moshe Katsav, President of Israel Dan Halutz, Chief of General Staff Shaul Mofaz, Minister of Defense Golriz Ghahraman, Member of New Zealand Parliament from the 52nd New Zealand Parliament part of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand Farah Karimi, Member of the House of Representatives Mazyar Keshvari, Member of the Storting Ardalan Shekarabi, Minister for Public Administration Maryam Yazdanfar, Member of the Riksdag Reza Khelili Dylami, Member of the Riksdag Goli Ameri, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Cyrus Amir-Mokri, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Institutions Cyrus Habib, Member of the Washington House of Representatives Azita Raji, United States Ambassador to Sweden Bob Yousefian, Mayor of Glendale Jimmy Delshad, Mayor of Beverly Hills
Economics
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 (2006). Migrant Iranian workers abroad remitted less than two billion dollars home in 2006.
High net-worth individuals
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
The Iranian diaspora has been commonly defined as a largely secular and as cultural or nominal Muslims; the majority of them do not take fundamental Islamic rituals, such as daily prayers or fasting, and having largely embraced Western secularism. Some expatriate Iranians consider themselves irreligious, agnostic, or atheist.