It’s almost impossible to be anywhere in this world without an iranian living next door! If we take a look at official and existing statistics and come to examine history realistically, the number of Iranian immigrants in the world can be between 4 and 10 million people. But according to official statistics and documents of every country, there are more than 4 million Iranians as immigrants in the world.
Iranian Diaspora in Different Regions
In recent years, the Iranian population has been on the rise in destinations such as Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Turkey. The Iranian population in Turkey was more than the Iranians in the European Union, Britain and Australia in the years 2020, 2021 and 2022. In the table below, the number of iranian people in 19 countries between the years of 2017 to 2021 is displayed:
| The country | Iranian Population | Year |
| UAE | 454000 | 2018 |
| USA | 397735 | 2021 |
| Germany | 302000 | 2021 |
| Turkey | 154965 | 2021 |
| UK | 83531 | 2020 |
| Sweden | 81000 | 2021 |
| Australia | 77780 | 2021 |
| Palestine | 50808 | 2020 |
| Kuwait | 46419 | 2017 |
| Netherlands | 38000 | 2021 |
| Qatar | 30000 | 2017 |
| France | 26960 | 2020 |
| Austria | 25000 | 2021 |
| Italy | 25000 | 2020 |
| Norway | 20000 | 2021 |
| Denmark | 18937 | 2021 |
| Iraq | 18000 | 2020 |
| Switzerland | 14000 | 2021 |
| Belgium | 13000 | 2020 |
Iranian Diaspora in the US
The United States of America has an Iranian population of about 1,900,000 (almost 2 million people), which ranks first in the world in terms of the number of Iranian immigrants. The biggest wave of Iranian immigration to America started in 1979. Another interesting statistic is that about 850,000 of this population, which is about half of the Iranian population in America, is concentrated in the state of California and generally in the city of Los Angeles. Of course, the ranking of America in the first place in terms of hosting the Iranian immigrant population is not surprising; Because America is famous for accepting immigrants, and the fact that America ranks first in terms of the number of immigrant population is the same for many other countries.
| Iranian citizens in the US (2020) | Iranians with permanent residency in the US (2020) | Iranian with temporary residency in the US (2020) |
| 8828 | 8805 | 2671 |
Iranian Diaspora in Canada
Canada hosts more than 400,000 Iranians. The country is currently the top priority for Iranians for immigration. Because on one hand, the United States has closed its doors to some countries, including Iranian citizens, the country is currently the top priority for Iranians for immigration.
| Iranian citizens in Canada (2021) | Iranians with permanent residency in Canada (2021) | Iranian with temporary residency in Canada (2021) |
| 4854 | 11305 | 23080 |
Iranian Diaspora in Germany
Germany, ranked 1 in Europe and ranked 4th in the world in hosting Iranians, hosts 319,000 Iranians and is recognized as the best destination in the European countries for immigration, work, life, and so on. Germany, same as Canada, has opened its doors to all nationalities, as in a variety of immigration methods. Iranians mainly immigrate to Germany due to educational and career affairs.
| Iranian citizens in Germany (2021) | Iranians with permanent residency in Germany (2021) | Iranian with temporary residency in Germany (2021) |
| 4020 | 23115 | 62110 |
Iranian Diaspora in England
Britain, which is referred to as the United Kingdom and includes England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, hosts between 100 and 350,000 Iranians.
| Iranian citizens in Britain (2021) | Iranians with permanent residency in Britain (2021) | Iranian with temporary residency in Britain (2021) |
| 3833 | 3577 | 4744 |
Iranian Diaspora in UAE
The United Arab Emirates hosts more than 300,000 Iranians. Of course, these statistics are likely to change at any moment for many reasons. The increase of Iranian immigrants in the country in the short term is significant.
Iranian Diaspora in Australia
Australia, similar to Canada, has been attracting Iranians for many years. The highest growth for the Iranian diaspora is in Australia (67% growth).
| Iranian citizens in Australia (2021) | Iranians with permanent residency in Australia (2021) | Iranian with temporary residency in Australia (2021) |
| 4634 | 2847 | 1572 |
Iranian Diaspora in Other Countries
Other countries that have a significant population of Iranians (at least 10 thousand people) are listed below. Among these countries and after the mentioned countries up to this point in the article, the Netherlands has the largest number of Iranians in the world and in Europe, amounting to 50 thousand people. In this list, which is in descending order, you can see the rest of the countries that often have at least 20,000 or 10,000 Iranians:
- Netherlands
- Austria
- Italy
- Denmark
- Belgium
- Swiss
- Norway
- Spain
- Finland
- New Zealand
- Kuwait
- Malaysia
- New Zealand
- Georgia
- India
- Diameter
- Japan
- Syria
- china
- Russia
- Lebanon
- Thailand
- Cyprus
- Hungary
- Ukraine
- Egypt
- Poland
Famous Iranians Around the World
In recent years, many Iranians have immigrated abroad for various reasons. Many of these people continued their daily lives, but some have been able to bring noisy success in their paths. These successes are in various fields of science, research, political, artistic, literature and other similar fields.
Usually, some internal and environmental factors, such as the relatively favorable efforts and conditions of the land, have been very influential. In the following, we will try to point out some of the successful Iranians abroad.
- Massoud Gharakhani: politician and member of the Norwegian Labor Party
- Firouz Naderi: NASA employee for 38 years and has registered his name among NASA members.
- Pierre Omidyar: Iranian billionaire; founder and president of the world’s largest online shopping site, EBay.
- Mino Akhtar Zand: Watten Fal Fal, Director General of the Oppassala Provincial Council, and currently as a member of the Board of Directors of the University of Stockholm
- Golshifteh Farahani: Actress
- Reza Amin Torabi: Bodybuilder, also owns a large company and company to produce bodybuilding and sports supplements.
- Leila Vaziri: Swimming champion
- Shohreh Aghdashloo: Hollywood actress
- Sarah Shahi: Hollywood actress
- Azadeh Tagarzadeh: One of the top ten NASA scientists who have been nicknamed “NASA star” for their discoveries, professor at Stanford University.
- Anoush Ansari: astronaut
- Omid Kordestani: chairman of the Twitter board, one of Google’s most successful executives
- Ramin Djawadi: composer and musician
To sum up, Iranians are almost everywhere in the world and a big percentage of them are doing pretty well and make big differences wherever they go. They are pretty good at what they do and this is one of the main reasons why a lot of foreign employers are eager to hire Iranian labor.
