The states keep exporting its people 729000 Lebanese have left since 2020

Between January 2020 and April 2026, 729,062 Lebanese left the country without a recorded return, according to a study based on General Security data, nearly four times the number recorded between 2014 and 2019.

But Lebanon is not only losing people. It is losing the generation meant to rebuild its economy: doctors, engineers, academics, entrepreneurs, and young professionals. With every wave of migration, the workforce and tax base shrink, while the country becomes increasingly dependent on remittances from those it failed to keep.

That is the irony: Lebanon loses its young people, then relies on the dollars they send back from abroad.

After years of economic collapse, institutional paralysis, and war, the question is no longer why Lebanese are leaving, but how many more the country can lose before recovery itself becomes even harder.