Only 20% of Iranian Developers Have No Plans to Emigrate, Survey Shows

A survey by Quera reveals that only 20% of Iranian developers do not intend to emigrate. Participants cited "higher quality of life," "better economic and financial conditions," and "social freedoms" as the primary reasons for wanting to leave.

The survey, sponsored by Digikala, Virgool, and DigiPay, included responses from 5,120 developers. The results indicate a strong desire to emigrate among Iranian programmers.

Forty percent of respondents said they are actively planning to move abroad, while 32% stated they currently have no plans but may reconsider in the future. Notably, only 20% said they had no intention of emigrating at all.

Quera also asked developers about their motivations for leaving. Sixty-nine percent cited a "higher quality of life," 61% mentioned "improved economic and financial conditions," and 42% pointed to "social freedoms." In contrast, just 8% said they sought experience abroad with plans to return to Iran.

When it comes to workplace challenges, Iranian developers identified "slow and low-quality internet" as the most significant obstacle. "Domestic internet filtering" and "international sanctions" were also cited as major barriers.

In another section of the survey, developers were asked: "What percentage of your daily work time is spent bypassing sanctions and internet restrictions?" Twenty-seven percent said 10% of their workday is consumed by these issues, while 11.5% reported spending over half their time on such workarounds.

Iranian Developers Not Overly Concerned About AI Taking Their Jobs

The survey also explored attitudes toward artificial intelligence. Twenty percent of respondents said they do not use AI, while 80% confirmed they do.

Among AI tools, ChatGPT leads with 93% popularity, followed by Gemini (30%) and Copilot (21%). The most common uses of AI among developers include writing code (60%), learning (58%), and debugging (53%).