According to international reports, the total educated Iranian population in the United States was estimated at 200,000 in 2017, which is considerably different from the claims expressed in baseless reports.

According to the public relations and information center of the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs, given the sensitivity of the society’s viewpoint to the issue of brain drain and emigration of elites and the important role of this topic in the motivational system of the country, the topic of emigration of elites and experts has always been a weak point for controversy developers. In addition, baseless claims have been made according to these reports.

In one of the claims, we read: according to the international monetary fund, more than 250,000 Iranian engineers and doctors are currently in the United States. According to the official statistics of the passport department, 15 graduates, four postgraduates and 5475 undergraduates have emigrated to this country.

Nevertheless, the international monetary fund has no such report on Iran. The only report of the fund has been published in 1998, where the number of Iranians with academic education in the United States has been reported to be 105,000 people, which is less than the mentioned claim.

On the other hand, according to statistics from the US Immigration Policy Institute and Medicus Firm in 2015, 254,000 physicians and surgeons have worked in the United States. About 9,000 Iranian physicians and surgeons were emigrants. In addition, there are no statistics on the number of Iranians working in science and engineering in the United States. According to the 2000 census, 50.9 percent of Iranian immigrants in the United States hold a bachelor"s degree or higher. Moreover, the rate of participation of Iranian immigrants in the US labor market was 63 percent in 2000, with 51.8 percent of US workers in management and professional jobs, 27.5 percent in sales and office jobs, and 9 percent in service jobs.

Furthermore, the US Census Bureau estimates the number of Iranians in the country in 2017 at 395593. As such, the total number of Iranian educates in the United States in 2017 can be estimated at about 200,000. In addition, using the 2000 census and the 2017 population census, the number of Iranian employees in all managerial and professional jobs can be estimated at a maximum rate of 129,000.

The international monetary fund has referred to this data about Iran in none of its reports. In a 1998 report released by the Fund, the number of Iranians with an academic education in the United States was 105,000, less than the number claimed about Iranian doctors and engineers in the country.

According to figures released by the US Immigration Policy Institute in 2015, 656,000 physicians and surgeons work in the United States, 254,000 of whom are immigrants. According to Medicus Firm statistics, in the agency that hires doctors for specialized careers, 9,000 of the 25,000 physicians and surgeons in the United States are from Iran, 3500 from Syria, and more than 1500 from Iraq. According to the US National Science Foundation"s 2018 statistics, the number of Iranians who received a PhD degree in science and engineering between 1995 and 2015 is just 3063 people.

With regard to 9,000 Iranian physicians and surgeons in the US, other Asian countries have a share of 1,301,000 in terms of the number of engineers and scientists in US job market, which is not clear how many of them are Iranians. In addition, the insignificant number of Iranians who were able to receive a temporary US doctoral visa during 1995-2015 shows that it is unlikely that the provided data of 250,000 Iranian engineers and physicians residing in the United States has a scientific basis.

According to the 2000 census, 50.9 percent of Iranian immigrants in the United States hold a master’s degree or higher. In addition, in 2000, the rate of participation of Iranian immigrants in the US labor market was 63 percent, with 51.8 percent of Iranian workers are active in the field of management and professional jobs, 27.5 percent are in sales and office jobs, and 9 percent have service jobs. The US Census Bureau estimates the number of Iranians in the country in 2017 at 395,429.

Therefore, the total number of Iranians studied in the United States in 2017 was about 200,000 people. In addition, using the 2000 census and the 2017 population census, the number of Iranian employees in all managerial and professional jobs can be estimated at up to 129,000. There is also no evidence that the Passport Office publishes emigration statistics and information.

Source: Iran Gate Emigration File