How many iranians live in california

Ata Farman was one of them. Farman, 35 at the time, recalls American protesters swarming a Persian restaurant he owned in West Los Angeles, and others leaving death threats on his phone at work.

But by the s and s, hope had started to fade and Iranians in Los Angeles slowly began to realize that they would be building a new life away from their motherland. More Persian restaurants opened, along with bookstores, music shops , art galleries, immigration legal services and passport processing agencies.

Today, as the complex relationship between Iran and the U. In , the Westwood Neighborhood Council passed a motion calling on the Los Angeles City Council to remove signs written in Persian in some stores that offered assistance for travel to Iran or consular services.

Subsequently, last May, some Iranian businesses in Tehrangeles came together with other Westwood residents to vote for a new neighborhood council. Skiles, president of the Graduate Students Assn. Across the street, year-old Alex Helmi faces the same predicament. He has been selling Persian rugs from his Westwood shop for more than 30 years, but over the last decade his livelihood has rested on the economic battles played out by the U. A embargo on Iranian goods prevented Helmi from being able to import merchandise.

In , when Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, Helmi was again caught in the middle. Despite the obstacles, many of the Iranians who helped establish Tehrangeles — now in their 70s and 80s — still cherish the community.

Many spend their days strolling the neighborhood or sipping tea at cafes while playing backgammon and recalling memories from their native country. Kambiz Ghaemmagham, 75, recently sat outside a coffee shop and talked about his younger days as an Iranian student activist in California.

Ghaemmagham decided to return to Iran in to see the outcome of the revolution. It was his last time. For more than 20 years, Ghaemmagham has organized a monthly meet-up for Iranian Americans to discuss topics related to their homeland. For younger generations, the community their elders created is a link to their Persian culture, a way to embrace their dual identities. The older Iranian generation came to America and established themselves, setting the foundation for the younger generation.

Because of that, Akbar Mahdi said, young Iranian Americans are now able to embrace both American and Persian culture while pursuing their passion. Many Iranian Americans are doctors, engineers and lawyers. Some have taken on high-profile jobs in Silicon Valley, such as Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive of Uber.

Others have tackled politics, such as Jimmy Delshad, who served as mayor of Beverly Hills. On a recent afternoon in Tehrangeles, year-old Shahab Vahdat took a drag from a shisha, a water pipe also known as hookah, as Persian music blared in the background of Naab Cafe. His family fled Tehran on a cold, snowy day in , when he was 3. Click here to learn more. A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation.

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Log out. US Markets Loading H M S In the news. Andy Kiersz. Using data from the US Census Bureau, we found the states and cities with the largest self-identified Iranian-American populations. Compared to the overall foreign-born population, Iranian immigrants are much more likely to have a college degree, higher household incomes, and greater English proficiency.

Using data from the U. The U. Census Bureau defines the foreign born as individuals without U. The foreign-born population includes naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, refugees and asylees, legal nonimmigrants including those on student, work, or other temporary visas , and persons residing in the country without authorization. Distribution by State and Key Cities. During the period, 54 percent of Iranian immigrants lived in California, with 29 percent in Los Angeles County alone.

The next three states with the largest Iranian immigrant populations were Texas 8 percent , New York 5 percent , and Virginia 4 percent. Figure 2. Note : Pooled ACS data were used to get statistically valid estimates at the state level for smaller-population geographies.

Not shown are the populations in Alaska and Hawaii; for details, visit the Migration Policy Institute MPI Migration Data Hub for an interactive map showing geographic distribution of immigrants by state and county, available online. Source : MPI tabulation of data from U. Census Bureau pooled ACS. In terms of cities, the largest shares of Iranian immigrants lived in the greater Los Angeles 36 percent ; Washington, DC 6 percent ; New York 5 percent ; and San Francisco 5 percent metropolitan areas.

Figure 3. Note : Pooled ACS data were used to get statistically valid estimates at the metropolitan statistical-area level for smaller-population geographies.

Click here for an interactive map that highlights the metropolitan areas with the highest concentrations of immigrants from Iran and other countries.

Table 1. Metropolitan Area, Source: MPI tabulation of data from the U. Iranian immigrants are less likely to be Limited English Proficient LEP compared to the overall foreign-born population. In , 36 percent of Iranian immigrants ages 5 and over reported limited English proficiency, compared with 46 percent of all immigrants.

Thirteen percent of Iranian immigrants reported speaking only English at home, as opposed to 16 percent of all immigrants. Age, Education, and Employment. Iranian immigrants, as a group, are older than both the total foreign-born and U. The median age for Iranians was 55 years, compared to 46 years for the overall foreign-born population and 37 years for the native born. In , just 2 percent of Iranian immigrants were under age 18, compared to 25 percent of the U.

Seventy percent of Iranian immigrants were between 18 and 64 years old, while 28 percent were age 65 or older. Figure 4. Age Distribution of the U. Population by Origin, Note: Percentages may not add up to as they are rounded to the nearest whole number. Census Bureau ACS. Iranian immigrants have much higher educational attainment relative to the U. Only 7 percent of Iranian immigrants did not have a high school diploma or equivalent, compared to 26 percent of immigrants overall and 8 percent of the U.

The number of international students from Iran in the United States rose in the s through the s, peaking during school year SY with Iranians representing 53,, or 18 percent, of the , international students studying in the United States before steeply declining in the years following the Islamic Revolution.

The Iranian international student population bottomed out at 1, in SY , but has slowly recovered and remained between 10, and 13, since SY The majority of Iranian immigrant workers were in management, business, science, and arts occupations 62 percent , a much higher proportion than the U.