As of 2020, 32.2 percent of Iranian survey respondents stated that they follows the Shia Muslim belief. This was followed by 22.2 percent of respondents who said that they have no religious belief.

In 2020, around 98.5 percent of the Iranian population identified as Muslim. Around 81 percent identified as Shia Muslims in the same year, while a much smaller share followed the Sunni Muslim religion. In Iran, most Sunni Muslims belong to ethnic minority groups.

Iran’s demographics
The total population in Iran has grown steadily and is expected to surpass 90 million in 2028. The vast majority of the population in the country was between 15 and 64 years of age. At the same time, the share of people aged above 64 increased in recent years and constituted over seven percent of the total population.

Muslim population worldwide

In Europe, it was estimated that the Muslim population could triple by the middle of the century. In Southeast Asia, Indonesia had the largest share of Muslims as a proportion of its population. On the African continent, the highest number of Muslims was estimated in Nigeria, with close to a hundred million Islam followers. In the United States, less than one percent of the population identified as Muslims.

This statistic illustrates the distribution of Sunni and Shia amongst Muslim population in Iran and Saudi Arabia as of 2009. As of 2009, around 73 million Iranian Muslims belonged to the Shia faith, whereas only 4.8 million people in Saudi Arabia followed Shia Islam.

In 1800, the population of the modern-day territory of Iran was approximately 6.3 million. This figure would see modest growth throughout the 19th century, as several wars and a mass famine in 1870-1871 (modern estimates put its death toll at around 1.5 million people) were largely balanced out by a surge in migration to Iran; this migration came as the Russian Empire expanded into the Caucuses, and caused a wave of refugees to flee southwards to avoid forced expulsion and ethnic cleansing in the North Caucasus region, particularly from 1864 onwards. As a result, the population of Iran reached ten million by the turn of the 20th century.

Twentieth century growth Iran’s population would begin to grow rapidly in the 20th century, as the discovery of oil in the country in 1908 led to an economic boom, and the socio-economic reforms implemented under Reza Shah would see a number of medical and healthcare advancements across the country. Although unpopular with religious fundamentalists, Reza Shah's reforms had long-term influence on the demographic development of Iran, even after his abdication in 1941. Following the Second World War, Iran became increasingly westernized and developed relatively strong relations with the U.S.; however, western influence, economic imbalances and the oppression of the Mohammed Reza Shah's regime became the driving forces behind the Iranian Revolution, which was one of the most significant moments in the history of the region.

Growth after the Revolution The 1979 Iranian Revolution saw the removal of the Shah and an end to Iran's so called westernization; the monarchy was replaced by an Islamic, theocratic regime led by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. During Khomeini's decade in charge he oversaw Iran's transition into an Islamic Republic, which implemented radical political and cultural changes in the country, and this coincided with an increased population growth rate in the 1980s. This growth was promoted by the Iranian government, who encouraged a baby boom during the Iran–Iraq War between 1980 and 1988, as part of an effort to increase future Iranian military manpower. As a result of this strategy, the population of Iran would grow from approximately 38.6 million in 1980 to over 56 million just a decade later. Following the implementation of a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1988, population growth in Iran would slow, as economic sanctions and government implementation of family planning policies would lead to a drop in fertility. Population growth has continued steadily into the 21st century, however, and in 2020, Iran is estimated to have a population of 84 million.

As of 2020, around 98.5 percent of the Iranian population identify as Muslims. According to forecasts for 2050, the share of Muslims in Iran was projected to slightly decline by 0.3 percent.

Abstract

The World Values Survey (WVS) is an international research program devoted to the scientific and academic study of social, political, economic, religious and cultural values of people in the world. The project’s goal is to assess which impact values stability or change over time has on the social, political and economic development of countries and societies. The project grew out of the European Values Study and was started in 1981 by its Founder and first President (1981-2013) Professor Ronald Inglehart from the University of Michigan (USA) and his team, and since then has been operating in more than 120 world societies. The main research instrument of the project is a representative comparative social survey which is conducted globally every 5 years. Extensive geographical and thematic scope, free availability of survey data and project findings for broad public turned the WVS into one of the most authoritative and widely-used cross-national surveys in the social sciences. At the moment, WVS is the largest non-commercial cross-national empirical time-series investigation of human beliefs and values ever executed.

The project’s overall aim is to analyze people’s values, beliefs and norms in a comparative cross-national and over-time perspective. To reach this aim, project covers a broad scope of topics from the field of Sociology, Political Science, International Relations, Economics, Public Health, Demography, Anthropology, Social Psychology and etc. In addition, WVS is the only academic study which covers the whole scope of global variations, from very poor to very rich societies in all world’s main cultural zones.

The WVS combines two institutional components. From one side, WVS is a scientific program and social research infrastructure that explores people’s values and beliefs. At the same time, WVS comprises an international network of social scientists and researchers from 120 world countries and societies. All national teams and individual researchers involved into the implementation of the WVS constitute the community of Principal Investigators (PIs). All PIs are members of the WVS.

The WVS seeks to help scientists and policy makers understand changes in the beliefs, values and motivations of people throughout the world. Thousands of political scientists, sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists and economists have used these data to analyze such topics as economic development, democratization, religion, gender equality, social capital, and subjective well-being. The WVS findings have proved to be valuable for policy makers seeking to build civil society and stable political institutions in developing countries. The WVS data is also frequently used by governments around the world, scholars, students, journalists and international organizations such as the World Bank, World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Headquarters in New York (USA). The WVS data has been used in thousands of scholarly publications and the findings have been reported in leading media such as Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Economist, the World Development Report, the World Happiness Report and the UN Human Development Report.

The World Values Survey Association is governed by the Executive Committee, the Scientific Advisory Committee, and the General Assembly, under the terms of the Constitution.

Strategic goals for the 7th wave included:

Expansion of territorial coverage from 60 countries in WVS-6 to 80 in WVS-7; Deepening collaboration within the international development community; Deepening collaboration within NGOs, academic institutions and research foundations; Updating the WVS-7 questionnaire with new topics & items covering new social phenomena and emerging processes of value change; Expanding the 7th wave WVS with data useful for monitoring the SDGs; Expanding capacity and resources for survey fieldwork in developing countries. The 7th wave continued monitoring cultural values, attitudes and beliefs towards gender, family, and religion; attitudes and experience of poverty; education, health, and security; social tolerance and trust; attitudes towards multilateral institutions; cultural differences and similarities between regions and societies. In addition, the WVS-7 questionnaire has been elaborated with the inclusion of such new topics as the issues of justice, moral principles, corruption, accountability and risk, migration, national security and global governance.

For more information on the history of the WVSA, visit https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSContents.jsp ›Who we are › History of the WVSA.

Geographic coverage

Iran.

The WVS has just completed wave 7 data that comprises 64 surveys conducted in 2017-2022. With 64 countries and societies around the world and more than 80,000 respondents, this is the latest resource made available for the research community.

The WVS-7 survey was launched in January 2017 with Bolivia becoming the first country to conduct WVS-7. In the course of 2017 and 2018, WVS-7 has been conducted in the USA, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Andorra, Greece, Serbia, Romania, Turkey, Russia, Germany, Thailand, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Nigeria, Iraq and over dozen of other world countries. Geographic coverage has also been expanded to several new countries included into the WVS for the first time, such as Bolivia, Greece, Macao SAR, Maldives, Myanmar, Nicaragua, and Tajikistan.

Analysis unit

Household, Individual

Sampling procedure

The sample type preferable for using in the World Values Survey is a full probability sample of the population aged 18 years and older. A detailed description of the sampling methodology is provided in the country specific sample design documentation available for download from WVS.

A detailed description of the sampling methodology is provided in the Iran 2020 sample design documentation available for download from WVS and also from the Downloads section of the metadata.

Mode of data collection

Paper Assisted Personal Interview [papi]

Research instrument

The survey was fielded in the following language(s): Persian. The questionnaire is available for download from the WVS website.

The Zoroastrian community today faces many challenges, some of which are deep-rooted and complex with no easy fix or resolution. It was proposed by members of the community that an independent research project should be conducted to help understand the community as it exists today.

Gen Z and Beyond: A Survey for Every Generation was a completely anonymous survey for Iranian / Parsi / Irani Zoroastrians. It was conducted by researchers at the SOAS Shapoorji Pallonji Institute of Zoroastrian Studies (SSPIZS). SOAS was chosen as a neutral platform for research, so that the researchers would not support any particular outcome from the survey. The project was approved by the SOAS Research Ethics Panel.

There has been no other survey of this nature undertaken on the global Zoroastrian community. The survey questionnaire was wide-ranging and included questions about domestic and family life, professional aspirations, religious observances and beliefs, philanthropy, entrepreneurship, immigration, community engagement and other issues of importance and relevance to the (Iranian / Parsi / Irani) Zoroastrian community.

The purpose of conducting the survey was to produce a report and dataset that could be of use to community leaders and researchers in the present and future.

Gen Z and Beyond: A Survey for Every Generation is the first survey to be undertaken on the global Zoroastrian community. The survey has collected data on demographics, behaviours and attitudes in order to explore the different views and practices within the current global Iranian / Parsi / Irani Zoroastrian community and those close to it.

The statistic illustrates the share of favorability of Iran and Saudi Arabia amongst Lebanese respondents as of spring 2015, by religion. During the survey period, a share of 82 percent of Sunni respondents in Lebanon viewed Saudi Arabia favorably. In comparison three percent of Shia respondents from Lebanon had a favorable view of Saudi Arabia.

The alcohol drinking status and demographic characteristics in Iran, 2016 (National Level).

The Bahá’í faith is one of the world's youngest major religions, having been founded in 19th century Persia (now Iran) by the prophet Bahá’u’lláh. Bahá’u’lláh had been a follower of a merchant called the Báb, who had developed a substantial following in Persia after claiming to be a manifestation of god. This small but growing religion was brutally suppressed by the Shia Muslim authorities in Persia, with the Báb himself being executed in 1850. Following this, Bahá’u’lláh fled into exile in Baghdad, in present-day Iraq, where he began to preach that he was the next in the line of God's messengers after the Báb. Both of the prophets claimed the lineage of all Abrahamic religions, combining beliefs from Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Bahá’u’lláh was eventually forced to settle in the coastal city of ‘Akká, Palestine (now Acre, Israel) where he died in 1892. The site of his death became the central place of pilgrimage in the Bahá’í faith, and is why the center of the religion is today in the nearby city of Haifa. Beliefs of the Bahá’í The Bahá’í are perhaps unique for a major religion, as rather than emphasizing the correctness of their own beliefs over other religions, followers of Bahá’í believe that there is truth in all world religions and that there should be peace and harmony among the different faiths. Bahá’ís recognize the prophets and messengers of the different world religions as all part of the same process of revelation by God to humanity. While they believe in plurality among those who bring God's message, the Bahá’í are monotheistic and believe in only one god, rather than multiple. Bahá’u’lláh taught that the different religions developed to convey the same message of God, but in different societies and time periods, meaning that the message has been delivered in different ways to suit the needs of the time and place. The key teachings of the Bahá’í faith include the unity of science and religion, equality between different peoples and religions, the importance of education and tolerance, and the unity of world religions due to the oneness of God. Today it is estimated that over five million people follow the teachings of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh worldwide.