By Warren L. Nelson
About 8% of all Iranians have abandoned the country since the 1979 revolution, according to United Nations figures on Iranians registered as refugees and asylum seekers.
The UN statistics do not include people who left Iran through legal immigration channels and were never registered as refugees or asylum seekers. Therefore, the actual number of Iranians who have permanently left the country is even higher.
Analysts estimate that more than 7.2 million Iranians now live outside the country, including both refugees and legal migrants.
The UN data show that during the 1980s — when Iran was at war with Iraq — more than 312,000 Iranians registered as refugees or asylum seekers. Surprisingly, that decade recorded the lowest refugee figure since the revolution.
The numbers rose significantly in later decades:
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1990s: 1.06 million
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2000s: 1.1 million
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2010s: 1.5 million
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Current decade (first six years): 1.26 million
If the current pace continues, this decade is expected to set yet another record.
The refugee data only include individuals born in Iran who left the country. It does not count children born abroad to Iranian refugees.
Estimates of Iran’s current population range between 86 million and 93 million. Based on those estimates, roughly 8% of the country’s population has emigrated since 1979.
While the figure is high, analysts note it is not unprecedented globally. For comparison, roughly one-quarter of Venezuela’s population has fled that country in recent years due to economic and political instability.
The continuing outflow of Iranians reflects ongoing economic hardship, political repression, and uncertainty about the country’s future.