Iranian diaspora
Iranian diaspora refers to Iranian people or those who are of Iranian ancestry living outside Iran. As of 2010, there were an estimated two to three million Iranians living abroad. Many of them lived in North America, Europe, Persian Gulf States, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Australia and the broader Middle East. Other studies have estimated about 1.5 million or fewer Iranians living abroad. Many of them have migrated to other countries after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, for security reasons. In 2021, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran published new statistics, which showed that 4,037,258 Iranians are living abroad , an increase from previous years. Socioeconomic status. Nearly 60 percent of Iranians abroad have earned at least an undergraduate degree, and 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, and Pierre Omidyar, who founded eBay in 1995 in San Jose, California. Iranian households earn on average $87,288 annually, and are ranked ninth by income. Students abroad. According to the Iranian government, 55,686 Iranian students were studying abroad in 2013: 8,883 studied 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. The Iranian Ministry of Education estimated that between 350,000 and 500,000 Iranians were studying outside Iran as of 2014. Economics. 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. In Dubai, Iranian expatriates have invested an estimated $200 billion (2006). Migrant Iranian workers abroad remitted less than two billion dollars home in 2006. Expatriate fund. The fund's stated goal is to  attract investment from Iranian expatriates and to use their experience in stimulating foreign investments. Religious affiliation. Some expatriate Iranians consider themselves irreligious, agnostic, or atheist. Notes. In the period from 1961 to 2005, the United States has been the main destination of Iranian emigrants. An estimated 378,995 Iranians have immigrated to the United States in that period, where Iranian immigrants have primarily immigrated to California (158,613 Iran-born in 2000), New York (17,323), Texas (15,581), Virginia (10,889), and Maryland (9,733). The Los Angeles Metropolitan Area was estimated to be host to approximately 114,712 Iranian immigrants, earning the Westwood area of  Los Angeles the nickname Tehrangeles. The US Census Bureau's decennial census form does not offer a designation for individuals of Iranian descent, and therefore 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. Studies using alternative statistical methods have estimated the actual number of Iranian Americans in the range of 691,000 to 1.2 million.