If I have an email account setup on my iphone and then delete the email account, is the data really erased? Or is it still stored on the phone some where?
The info is not stored on your phone.
When you set up a email account your basically just logging into your account like you would on a computer. Your info IE emails youve saved or in you inbox etc, Those are saved in you email account. If you were to set it back up on your phone it would show back up...