Iranian diaspora

Nearly 60 percent have earned at least an undergraduate degree and also 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, a manufacturer of children’s toys and games and consumer electronics. Pierre Omidyar founded eBay in 1995 in San Jose, California is also an American with Iranian ancestry. Iranian households earn on average $87,288 annually, and are ranked ninth by income.[27]

According to the Iranian government, 55,686 Iranian students were studying abroad in 2013.[28] Out of this number, 8,883 students were studying 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.[29][30] According to an estimate by the Iranian Ministry of Education, between 350,000 and 500,000 Iranians were studying outside Iran as of 2014.[31]

• 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

Their combined net worth is $1.3 trillion (2006 est.)[32][33] 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.[10] In Dubai, Iranian expatriates have invested an estimated $200 billion (2006).[34] Migrant Iranian workers abroad remitted less than two billion dollars home in 2006.[35]

High net-worth individuals

See also: Social class in Iran and List of Iranians by net worth

National ranking	Name	Citizenship	Net worth (USD)	Source(s) of wealth
1	Pierre Omidyar		12.9 billion [36]	eBay
2	Ghermezian family		4.0 billion [37]	Triple Five Group
3	Farhad Moshiri		2.8 billion [38]	Metalloinvest, Everton
4	Nazarian family		2.0 billion [39]	Qualcomm
5	Vincent & Robert Tchenguiz		1.4 billion [40][41]	Real Estate
6	Manny Mashouf		1.3 billion [42]	Bebe stores
7	Merage family		1.1 billion [43]	Hot Pockets
8	Nasser David Khalili		1.0 billion [44]	Real Estate
9	Hassan Khosrowshahi		950 million [45]	Future Shop
10	Omid Kordestani		900 million [46]	Google
11	Anousheh Ansari		750 million [47]	Sonus Networks
12	Isaac Larian		723 million [46]	MGA Entertainment
13	Arash Ferdowsi		400 million [48]	Dropbox

Iranians are predominantly Shia Muslims. A number of Iranians have converted to Christianity in the diaspora from the predominant Shia Islam. While this group accounts for rather a small percentage of the total diaspora population, it is now far from marginal, with dozens of Iranian churches existing throughout countries with significant Iranian communities, including the United States, Canada,[51] the United Kingdom,[52] Australia, Sweden, and Germany.[53] There also notable groups of Baháʼí, Jewish, and Zoroastrian Iranians.

A significant number of Iranians abroad are irreligious, Agnostic and Atheist.[54][55][56] While reliable statistics are difficult to come by, it is safe to say that the percentage of irreligious Iranians is significantly higher in the diaspora than in Iran, particularly with regard to Iranian-Americans and those living in Europe and Canada.[57]

^{[note 1]} The Iranian citizens abroad (scope of this article) differ from the other Iranian peoples living in other areas of Greater Iran, who are members of the same ethno-linguistic family, speaking languages belonging to the Iranian languages (a branch of Indo-European languages). There are an estimated 150 to 200 million native speakers of Iranian languages (including 80 million in Iran as of 2016), the five major groups of Persians, Lurs, Pashtuns, Kurds and Baloch accounting for about 90% of this number.[58] Currently, most of these Iranian people live in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, parts of Uzbekistan (especially Samarkand and Bukhara), the Caucasus (Ossetia and Azerbaijan) and the Kurdish areas (referred to as Kurdistan) of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. Smaller groups of Iranian people can also be found in western China. Due to recent migrations, there are also large communities of speakers of Iranian languages in Europe, the Americas and Israel.

^{[note 2]} In some countries naturalized citizens, dual citizens, or children with only one Iranian/foreign-born parent are counted (for statistical purposes) as citizens/nationals of the host country only (i.e. citizen of the country of residence). For example all naturalized Swiss citizens have a legal "Swiss origin" even though it is often not the same as their place of birth. Country statistics (by national origin) generally exclude illegal immigration.

^{[note 3]} Same as "Iranian-born" but includes their children born abroad.

^{[note 4]} Iranian ancestry (i.e. second or third generation), not necessarily Iranian citizenship.

^{[note 5]} In the period from 1961 to 2005, the United States has been the main destination of Iranian emigrants. A total of 378,995 Iranians have immigrated to the United States in that period, where the major concentrations of Iranian immigrants are California (158,613 Iran-born in 2000),[59] New York state (17,323),[59] Texas (15,581),[59] Virginia (10,889),[59] and Maryland (9,733)[59] Los Angeles Metropolitan Area was estimated to be host to approximately 114,712 Iranian immigrants,[59] earning the Westwood area of LA the nickname Tehrangeles. In the case of the United States, the US Census Bureau's decennial census form does not offer a designation for individuals of Iranian descent. Consequently, it is estimated that only a fraction of the total number of Iranians are writing in their ancestry. The 2000 Census Bureau estimates that the Iranian-American community (including the US-born children of the Iranian foreign born) numbers around 330,000. However, studies using alternative statistical methods have estimated the actual number of Iranian Americans in the range of 691,000 to 1.2 million.[10][60]

• Demography of Iran
• Anti-Iranian sentiment
• Foreign relations of Iran
• Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran
• Iran's brain drain
• Iranian nationality law
• Tourism in Iran
• Visa requirements for Iranian citizens

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Iranian diaspora.

• History of Iranian diaspora - Encyclopædia Iranica
• Country Profile - Iran Migration Policy Institute (including modern history of Iranian migration)
• Iranian Diaspora in pre-Islamic times
• High Council of Iranians Abroad- "Strengthening the national identity of Iranians outside Iran and to defend their rights, helping the propagation of Persian calligraphy and language, and easing the participation in national security."
• Iranians Abroad - resources and links parstimes.com
• Iranian Alliances Across Borders (IAAB) (non-profit, non-partisan, and non-religious)
• Iranian diaspora - press article (2009)
• Seminar for Iranians Abroad Held in Tehran on August 2010