1.8 million Pakistanis left for jobs abroad in three years, 90,000 of them professionals

More than 1.87 million Pakistanis went abroad for work in 2024, 2025 and the first months of 2026, the National Assembly was told on Friday 16 October 2026, ARY News reported. The figure, 1.871 million, was given during question hour by the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development. Federal Minister Chaudhry Salik Hussain was answering a question from PPP MNA Shazia Somro, according to Pakistan Observer. The ministry's Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment is the body that registers workers leaving on overseas job contracts.

How many professionals left

Within that total, a much smaller group of highly educated professionals went abroad for jobs: 90,406 over the three years, a figure ProPakistani put at "more than 90,000". The yearly count has fallen sharply:

• 2024: 45,830
• 2025: 28,726
• 2026 so far: 15,850

Which professions

Source: figures presented to the National Assembly, as reported by ProPakistani, ARY News and Pakistan Observer, 16 October 2026. ARY's table gives 4,799 accountants for 2024; ProPakistani and Pakistan Observer give 4,779.

What the numbers show

• Doctors went against the trend. Managers, engineers, accountants, nurses and programmers all fell from 2024 to 2025, but the number of doctors leaving rose, from 3,625 to 3,795, and 2,093 had already gone by mid-October 2026.
• Managers drove the drop. Departures of managers fell from 23,674 in 2024 to 9,562 in 2025, which accounts for most of the decline in the professional total.
• Teachers are steady: about 1,700 a year in both 2024 and 2025, and 1,457 already this year.
• Professionals are a small slice. The 90,406 professionals are under 5% of the 1.871 million workers who left; the rest are skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers. The reports do not break the 1.871 million down by country or by year.

Why it matters at home

The money these workers send back is one of Pakistan's biggest sources of dollars. Minister of State for Overseas Pakistanis Awn Chaudhry told the House that more than 10 million Pakistanis live abroad and send home about $40 billion a year, and that the government wants to double that within two years, Pakistan Observer reported.

For a family in Lahore or Mardan with someone working in Riyadh or Dubai, the rupee value of each transfer moves with the exchange rate: check today's Saudi riyal rate and UAE dirham rate, or work out a transfer with our currency converter.

The brain drain debate is not new. In September 2025 Business Recorder reported that about 2.9 million people had left Pakistan between 2022 and mid-September 2025, based on Protectorate of Emigrants data, a different period and count from the one given to the Assembly this week.