In 1870, life expectancy from birth in the modern-day territory of Iran was approximately 25.6 years. This figure would see little change in Iran for much of the late 19th and early 20th century; the only major change was the dip in the late 1910s, resulting from the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic) and a famine from 1918 to 1919, which led to significant fatalities across the region. Life expectancy would begin to grow rapidly in the 1940s, as the country’s oil reserves, discovered in 1908, would see an economic boom in the years during and immediately following the Second World War, providing a valuable source of funding for socio-economic reforms implemented under Reza Shah. This, in turn, saw a rapid modernization of healthcare in the country, as well as the implementation of mass vaccination programs in the early 1940s, which greatly lowered child mortality rates and allowed life expectancy to rise.

As implementation of these programs would continue, life expectancy from birth rose from just over 27 years in 1940, to approximately 39 years in 1950. After the end of the rapid growth of the 1940s, life expectancy would continue steadily rise until 1980, peaking at 56.7 years. However, life expectancy would fall to just 52 years in 1985, the result of mass fatalities in the Iran-Iraq War of 1980 to 1988. Following the war’s end with a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1988, life expectancy would quickly recover, reaching over 69 years by the turn of the century. Life expectancy has continued to rise throughout the 21st century, and it is now estimated that the average child born in Iran in 2020 will live to the age of approximately 76 years.

This statistic shows the age structure of Iran inhabitants from 2013 to 2023. In 2023, about 22.84 percent of inhabitants were aged 0 to 14 years, while approximately 69.25 percent were aged 15 to 64, and 7.92 percent of Iran inhabitants were aged 65 or older.

Iran IR: Life Expectancy at Birth: Male data was reported at 74.882 Year in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 74.668 Year for 2015. Iran IR: Life Expectancy at Birth: Male data is updated yearly, averaging 56.615 Year from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2016, with 57 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 74.882 Year in 2016 and a record low of 45.706 Year in 1960. Iran IR: Life Expectancy at Birth: Male data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Iran – Table IR.World Bank: Health Statistics. Life expectancy at birth indicates the number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of its birth were to stay the same throughout its life.; ; (1) United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects: 2017 Revision. (2) Census reports and other statistical publications from national statistical offices, (3) Eurostat: Demographic Statistics, (4) United Nations Statistical Division. Population and Vital Statistics Reprot (various years), (5) U.S. Census Bureau: International Database, and (6) Secretariat of the Pacific Community: Statistics and Demography Programme.; Weighted average;

Historical chart and dataset showing Iran life expectancy by year from 1950 to 2025.

Iran IR: Age Dependency Ratio: % of Working-Age Population data was reported at 41.100 % in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 40.625 % for 2016. Iran IR: Age Dependency Ratio: % of Working-Age Population data is updated yearly, averaging 87.275 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 96.632 % in 1988 and a record low of 39.436 % in 2012. Iran IR: Age Dependency Ratio: % of Working-Age Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Iran – Table IR.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Age dependency ratio is the ratio of dependents--people younger than 15 or older than 64--to the working-age population--those ages 15-64. Data are shown as the proportion of dependents per 100 working-age population.; ; World Bank staff estimates based on age distributions of United Nations Population Division's World Population Prospects: 2017 Revision.; Weighted average; Relevance to gender indicator: this indicator implies the dependency burden that the working-age population bears in relation to children and the elderly. Many times single or widowed women who are the sole caregiver of a household have a high dependency ratio.

This horizontal bar chart displays median age (year) by continent using the aggregation average, weighted by population in Iran. The data is about countries per year.

The total life expectancy at birth in Iran saw no significant changes in 2023 in comparison to the previous year 2022 and remained at around 77.65 years. Still, the life expectancy at birth reached its highest value in the observed period in 2023. Life expectancy at birth refers to the number of years the average newborn is expected to live, providing that mortality patterns at the time of birth do not change thereafter.Find more statistics on other topics about Iran with key insights such as crude birth rate, total fertility rate, and death rate.

This bar chart displays median age (year) by country using the aggregation average, weighted by population in Iran. The data is filtered where the date is 2021. The data is about countries per year.

This dataset is about countries per year in Iran. It has 64 rows. It features 4 columns: country, urban population, and median age.

This bar chart displays median age (year) by demonym using the aggregation average, weighted by population in Iran. The data is filtered where the date is 2021. The data is about countries per year.

Over the last two observations, the life expectancy has significantly increased in all gender groups As part of the positive trend, the life expectancy reaches the maximum value for the different genders at the end of the comparison period. Particularly noteworthy is the life expectancy of women at birth, which has the highest value of 79.63 years. Life expectancy at birth refers to the number of years that the average newborn can expect to live, providing that mortality patterns at the time of their birth do not change thereafter.Find further similar statistics for other countries or regions like Cambodia and Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of).

This bar chart displays median age (year) by capital city using the aggregation average, weighted by population in Iran. The data is filtered where the date is 2021. The data is about countries per year.

This scatter chart displays GDP (current US$) against median age (year) in Iran. The data is filtered where the date is 2021. The data is about countries per year.

In 2023, the total fertility rate in Iran did not change in comparison to the previous year. The total fertility rate remained at 1.7 children per woman. The total fertility rate is the average number of children that a woman of childbearing age (generally considered 15 to 44 years) is expected to have throughout her reproductive years. Unlike birth rates, which are based on the actual number of live births in a given population, fertility rates are estimates (similar to life expectancy) that apply to a hypothetical woman, as they assume that current patterns in age-specific fertility will remain constant throughout her reproductive years.Find more statistics on other topics about Iran with key insights such as total life expectancy at birth, death rate, and crude birth rate.

This scatter chart displays unemployment (% of total labor force) against median age (year) in Iran. The data is about countries per year.

This scatter chart displays self-employed workers (% of total employment) against median age (year) in Iran. The data is about countries per year.

This dataset is about countries per year in Iran. It has 1 row and is filtered where the date is 2021. It features 4 columns: country, capital city, and median age.

In 1925, the total fertility rate of Iran was just over seven children per woman, meaning that the average woman in Iran could expect to have seven children over the course of their reproductive years. The fertility rate would see little change from this figure until the late 1960s, when modernization and significant decreases in child mortality would lead the fertility rate to fall to just over 6.2 in 1975. However, fertility would begin to rise again in the 1980s, as the modernization policies of the Shah would be replaced by Islamic economic and social platforms with the 1979 Islamic Revolution in the country. The total fertility rate in the country would peak at just over 6.5 children per woman in 1985, in response to strong encouragement by the Iranian government promoting larger families to improve Iran’s manpower advantage over Iraq in the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran War. Following the war’s end with a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1988, fertility would fall sharply in the country, falling to 2.4 by the turn of the century, and falling below replacement-level in 2005. However, after bottoming out at 1.82 in 2010, fertility has risen somewhat in recent years, as the Iranian government has rolled out a series of economic incentives aimed at increasing fertility in the country. As a result, in 2020, the total fertility rate in Iran is estimated to have risen slightly, to 2.15 children per woman, above replacement-level.

This scatter chart displays median age (year) against agricultural land (km²) in Iran. The data is about countries per year.

Historical chart and dataset showing Iran fertility rate by year from 1950 to 2025.