The rate of brain drain among Türkiye’s higher education graduates remained unchanged at 2% last year, with most graduates choosing to move to the U.S., according to data released Friday by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
The 2024 figure was identical to the previous year’s rate. By gender, the brain drain rate stood at 1.6% among women and 2.4% among men.
Among public university graduates, the rate held steady at 1.7% in both 2023 and 2024. For foundation, or private, university graduates, the figure dropped slightly from 4.5% to 4.3% during the same period.
Within foundation universities, the highest brain drain rate was recorded among full scholarship students at 8.3%, followed by partial scholarship recipients at 3.7% and tuition-paying students at 3.6%.
By field of study, information and communication technologies saw the highest rate at 6.7%, followed by engineering, manufacturing and construction at 4.4%, and natural sciences, mathematics and statistics at 2.7%.
Among specific undergraduate programs, molecular biology and genetics graduates had the highest brain drain rate at 15%, followed by industrial engineering at 10.8%, electronics engineering at 9.6%, mathematical engineering at 9.5%, and bioengineering at 9.4%.
When categorized by language of instruction, graduates who studied in French were the most likely to move abroad, with a brain drain rate of 9.9%. They were followed by English-taught graduates at 6.2%, German at 5.9% and Russian at 4.7%.
The U.S. was the top destination for graduates leaving Türkiye, attracting 19.6% of all university-educated emigrants. It was followed by Germany at 19.4%, the U.K. at 11.3%, the Netherlands at 7% and Canada at 5.2%.
Electrical and electronics engineering graduates made up the largest group among those moving to the U.S., while computer engineering graduates were the most common among those relocating to Germany, the U.K. and the Netherlands. Business administration graduates accounted for the largest share of those heading to Canada.
