Brain drain: 12% of Israelis with PhDs lived abroad last year, state report finds

In a worrying sign of Israel’s “brain drain,” about 12 percent of those who attained PhDs in Israel over a 28-year period were living abroad for at least three years as of 2024, according to a survey published Tuesday by the Central Bureau of Statistics.

The findings reflect a growing trend of Israelis leaving the country in recent years, in the shadow of Israel’s two-year war with Gaza and ongoing political uncertainty.

Some 54,778 people who graduated between 1990 and 2018, or 6.2% of all graduates of Israeli universities and colleges, lived abroad at the end of the year, according to data compiled by the CBS in collaboration with the National Council for Research and Development.

The tendency to relocate is nearly double among graduates in STEM fields, including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. More than 25% of students with PhD degrees in math, and nearly 22% of computer science PhD graduates, resided overseas, the survey found, as did 8% of medical degree graduates.

The findings are “a wake-up call and a serious warning sign to decision-makers,” the Council of Heads of Research Universities said in a statement. “Israeli academia invests a lot of resources in training the brightest minds, and the state loses them at the moment of truth. This is a direct blow to the growth engines of the Israeli economy, security, high-tech and our national resilience.”

Without greater investment in research infrastructure and creating certainty for young researchers, Israel “will continue to provide the world with our best scientists, instead of their building their future here,” it said.

The report comes as Israelis leave Israel for other locations at an unprecedented pace, a phenomenon that has been attributed to Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza and political unrest that culminated in mass protests against the government’s judicial overhaul plan in 2023.

According to a report presented to the Knesset’s Immigration and Absorption Committee in October, more than 125,000 Israeli citizens moved abroad between early 2022 and mid-2024, the country’s largest-ever loss of human capital in such a short period.

Last month, a study published by the Israel Democracy Institute found that as many as 27% of Israelis were considering leaving the country.