According to official statistics and the existing documents, the number of students leaving the country has always been less than 2% of the total number of students in the country during 1999-2017.

According to the public relations and information center of the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs quoted by the news headquarter of (fanavarimag.ir), given the increasing tendency for immigration to the world, Iran is not among the top 20 countries in terms of the number of people with an immigration program compared to the total population of the country. In addition, statistics show that the number of Iranian students abroad is on the rise, but it has been much lower with the growth of the total number of students in Iran.

Along with the global trend of expanding international migration, there is a growing tendency for Iranians to migrate. A study by the Gallup Institute on immigration plans and preparing for immigration in 2015, Iran was ranked ninth out of the top 20 countries with the highest rate of migration tendency among its nationals.

According to this report, 1,800,000 Iranians have expressed an interest in and desire to emigrate, while only 400,000 have stated that they are planning or preparing to emigrate. Based on the same report, given the increasing tendency for immigration worldwide, Iran is not among the top 20 countries in terms of the number of people with an immigration program, and the African and Caribbean countries have the highest proportion of people with an immigration plan. Of the Middle East countries, Iraq is in the top 20 in the list of tenths.

Now, based on the latest official statistics, look at the decades of migration of Iranian students.

Most emigration of Iranian students occurred during the 70s and 80s, which might be due to various reasons such as the cultural transformations during the Islamic revolution of Iran and following events and due to the closing of universities of the country and the start of the imposed war.

After that period, the process of student migration from the country declined in the 90s until the beginning of the 20s century, when as the capacity of universities and the number of students in Iran increased, the number of students leaving the country to continue their studies increased.

The growth trend from 2002 to 2005 was very slow and decreased slightly in 2006 compared to earlier years. In 2007, the number of Iranian international students abroad grew at a faster rate than in previous years.

However, statistics show that the number of Iranian students abroad has been on the upward trend compared to the growth of the total number of students in Iran, in a way that the increase of total students in Iran was tripled during 1999-2015. However, the number of students leaving the country has almost doubled in the same period.

Which countries were the main destinations for Iranian students?

 The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released a list of the first destinations for Iranian students in 2016, according to which 51,082 Iranian students were registered in the United States, Turkey, Canada, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, The United Arab Emirates, Australia, the United Kingdom and France, and the countries mentioned above have the highest number of Iranian students, respectively.

According to the official statistics and existing documents, the number of students leaving the country has always been less than 2% of the total number of students in the country during 1999-2017. During the same period and with the development of higher education in Iran, the ratio of migrated students to the total number of students in the country has always been decreasing.