Assessing the South African Brain Drain: A statistical comparison Meyer, Jean-Baptiste Brown, Mercy Kaplan, David Brain Drain The brain drain has been a highly discussed, sensitive and controversial issue in South Africa during the past decade. While everyone agrees that there is indeed a brain drain problem, there is little agreement on its dimensions, its causes and its remedies. This paper deals directly with the first of these three points, thus hoping to bring light to both the second and the third. The accuracy of the official statistics on the extent of emigration from South Africa, particularly skilled people, has been increasingly questioned by journalists and academics. Doubts arose in the mid-90s as empirical findings indicated that the departures were far higher than the data published by Central Statistical Services indicated. Capetown Development Policy Research Unit 2000 2000 Text 30p http://iffoadatabase.trustafrica.org/iff/assessing_the_south_african_brain_drain-_a_statistical_comparison.pdf