Demographics of Iran

's population increased dramatically during the later half of the 20th century, reaching about 80 million by 2016., Iran's population is around 93 million. In recent years, however, Iran's birth rate has dropped significantly. Studies project that Iran's rate of population growth will continue to slow until it stabilises above 100 million by 2050. Half of Iran's population was under 35 years old in 2012. As of January 2025, the average age of the Iranian population is 32 years.
In 2009, the number of households stood at 15.3 million. Families earn some 11.8 million rials per month on average.
According to the OECD/World Bank statistics population growth in Iran from 1990 to 2008 was 17.6 million and 32%. The literacy rate was 80% in 2002, and 85% in 2016. The fertility rate has fallen to 1.44, below the natural replacement rate of 2.1.

Population

According to the 2016 population census the population of Iran was 79.9 million, a fourfold increase since 1956. Between 1976 and 1986, an average annual population growth of almost 4% was reached, but due to decreasing fertility levels the growth decreased to 1.2% between 2011 and 2016.

Census date	Population	Average annual growth	Population density/km²	Proportion urban	Household size
1956-11-01	18,954,704	—	12	31.4
1966-11-01	25,785,210	3.13	16	37.5
1976-11-01	33,708,744	2.71	20	47.0	5.02
1986-11-22	49,445,010	3.91	30	54.0	5.11
1996-11-01	60,055,488	2.0	37	61.0	4.84
2006-11-01	70,495,782	1.62	43	68.5	4.03
2011-11-01	75,149,669	1.29	46	71.4	3.55
2016-11-01	79,926,270	1.24	49	74.0	3.3

Age group	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage
Total	70,495,782	100	75,149,669	100
0–4	5,463,978	7.75	6,232,552	8.29
5–9	5,509,057	7.81	5,657,791	7.53
10–14	6,708,591	9.52	5,671,435	7.55
15–19	8,726,761	12.38	6,607,043	8.79
20–24	9,011,422	12.78	8,414,497	11.20
25–29	7,224,952	10.25	8,672,654	11.54
30–34	5,553,531	7.88	6,971,924	9.28
35–39	4,921,124	6.98	5,571,018	7.41
40–44	4,089,158	5.80	4,906,749	6.53
45–49	3,522,761	5.00	4,030,481	5.36
50–54	2,755,420	3.91	3,527,408	4.69
55–59	1,887,981	2.68	2,680,119	3.57
60–64	1,464,452	2.08	1,862,907	2.48
65–69	1,197,550	1.70	1,343,731	1.79
70–74	1,119,318	1.59	1,119,968	1.49
75–79	694,122	0.98	913,531	1.22
80+	645,601	0.92	919,539	1.22
Unclear	–	–	46,322	0.06

Number of children 0–14	Number of people 15–49	Proportion	Number of women 15–49	Proportion
17,681,629	43,049,709	0.4107	~21,524,855	0.8215
17,561,778	45,174,366	0.3888	~22,587,183	0.7775

Population Estimates by Sex and Age Group :

Age group	Male	Female	Total	%
Total	42,484,186	41,553,414	84,037,600	100
0–4	3,751,160	3,584,640	7,335,800	8.73
5–9	3,644,823	3,453,109	7,097,932	8.45
10–14	3,195,837	3,043,160	6,238,997	7.42
15–19	2,850,201	2,723,069	5,573,270	6.63
20–24	2,817,236	2,715,743	5,532,979	6.58
25–29	3,398,106	3,322,934	6,721,040	8.00
30–34	4,246,233	4,166,179	8,412,412	10.01
35–39	4,226,366	4,147,771	8,374,137	9.96
40–44	3,375,662	3,271,031	6,646,693	7.91
45–49	2,687,892	2,591,386	5,279,278	6.28
50–54	2,321,552	2,270,429	4,591,981	5.46
55–59	1,841,337	1,847,872	3,689,209	4.39
60–64	1,510,299	1,557,919	3,068,218	3.65
65–69	1,058,091	1,138,129	2,196,220	2.61
70–74	640 098	748 890	1,388,988	1.65
75–79	415 623	459 393	875 016	1.04
80+	503 670	511 760	1,015,430	1.21
Age group	Male	Female	Total	Percent
0–14	10,591,820	10,080,909	20,672,729	24.60
15–64	29,274,884	28,614,333	57,889,217	68.88
65+	2,617,482	2,858,172	5,475,654	6.52

Year	0–14	15–64	65+
1976	44.5	52	3.5
1985	45.5	51.5	3
1996	39.5	56.1	4.3
2006	25.1	69.7	5.2
2011	23.4	70.9	5.7
2016	24.0	69.9	6.1

Table 9 – Population and Average Annual Growth by Provinces: 2006 and 2011

Province	2006	2011	Average annual growth
Alborz	2,076,991	2,412,513	3.04
Ardabil	1,228,155	1,248,488	0.33
Bushehr	886,267	1,032,949	3.11
Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari	857,910	895,263	0.86
East Azerbaijan	3,603,456	3,724,620	0.66
Fars	4,336,878	4,596,658	1.17
Gilan	2,404,861	2,480,874	0.62
Golestan	1,617,087	1,777,014	1.90
Hamadan	1,703,267	1,758,268	0.64
Hormozgan	1,403,674	1,578,183	2.37
Ilam	545,787	557,599	0.43
Isfahan	4,559,256	4,879,312	1.37
Kerman	2,652,413	2,938,988	2.07
Kermanshah	1,879,385	1,945,227	0.69
Khuzestan	4,274,979	4,531,720	1.17
Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad	634,299	658,629	0.76
Kurdistan	1,440,156	1,493,645	0.73
Lorestan	1,716,527	1,754,243	0.44
Markazi	1,351,257	1,413,959	0.91
Mazandaran	2,922,432	3,073,943	1.02
North Khorasan	811,572	867,727	1.35
Qazvin	1,143,200	1,201,565	1.00
Qom	1,046,737	1,151,672	1.93
Razavi Khorasan	5,593,079	5,994,402	1.40
Semnan	589,742	631,218	1.37
Sistan and Baluchestan	2,405,742	2,534,327	1.05
South Khorasan	636,420	662,534	0.81
Tehran	11,345,375	12,183,391	1.44
West Azerbaijan	2,873,459	3,080,576	1.40
Yazd	990,818	1,074,428	1.63
Zanjan	964,601	1,015,734	1.04
Total	70,495,782	75,149,669	1.29

1 The population of the provinces of Alborz and Tehran for 2006 and their average annual growth have been calculated based on the data of 2011.
Unofficial Translation 17
Table 10 – Population Percentages by Province: 2006 and 2011

Province	2006	2011
Alborz	2.95	3.21
Ardabil	1.74	1.66
Bushehr	1.26	1.37
Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari	1.22	1.19
East Azerbaijan	5.11	4.96
Fars	6.15	6.12
Gilan	3.41	3.30
Golestan	2.29	2.36
Hamadan	2.42	2.34
Hormozgan	1.99	2.10
Ilam	0.77	0.74
Isfahan	6.47	6.49
Kerman	3.76	3.91
Kermanshah	2.67	2.59
Khuzestan	6.06	6.03
Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad	0.90	0.88
Kurdistan	2.04	1.99
Lorestan	2.43	2.33
Markazi	1.92	1.88
Mazandaran	4.15	4.09
North Khorasan	1.15	1.15
Qazvin	1.62	1.60
Qom	1.48	1.53
Razavi Khorasan	7.93	7.98
Semnan	0.84	0.84
Sistan and Baluchestan	3.41	3.37
South Khorasan	0.90	0.88
Tehran	16.09	16.21
West Azerbaijan	4.08	4.10
Yazd	1.41	1.43
Zanjan	1.37	1.35
Total	100	100

1 The population of the provinces of Alborz and Tehran for 2006 and their average annual growth have been calculated based on the data of 2011.