Level of education in Iran

Educational qualifications in Iran

The following information relates to completed levels of education for the population over the age of 25 in Iran. The individual levels are based on the ISCED 1 to 8 educational pathways defined by UNESCO.

In Iran, 86.9% of all over 25-year-olds completed elementary school. In the vast majority of countries, the lower secondary level is still part of the compulsory schooling period. Nevertheless, only 65.1% of the population have completed this stage. Upper secondary level in the US comprises grades 11 and 12 of high school. It is the foundation for subsequent studies. Iran achieves 45.7% here. Sections ISCED 4 (including Community Colleges or Technical Schools) and 5 (short tertiary courses) are somewhat more difficult to classify and are interpreted and recognized differently depending on the country. In Iran, 44.9% have completed ISCED level 4 and 22.5% have completed level 5.

Academic degrees include the Bachelor's, Master's and Ph.D. The rarer doctorate (apart from the honorary doctorate) also falls into the highest level of education. In Iran, 17.9% have a bachelor's degree. The global average is 17.4%. Iran has only 4.3% of master's degrees (Ø 6.5%).

Only 0.3 percent have a doctorate or Ph.D. in Iran. This is also noticeably below the average of 1.2%.

Compulsory schooling

Compulsory education in Iran begins at the age of 6, which is quite in line with the average for all other countries. The minimum period of schooling for this is 9 years. This is slightly shorter than the usual duration. The global average here is 10.1 years of schooling and includes full-time compulsory schooling and, depending on the educational pathway, subsequent part-time compulsory schooling, further education or vocational training.

Ratio of teachers to pupils

In 2020, there were a total of 8.67 million pupils in all public and private elementary school in the country. In contrast, there were 286,476 teachers. This means that there are around 30 children for every teacher. Of these, 100% were actually pedagogically trained teachers in 2014. This ratio decreases slightly at secondary level. There are now only 19.0 pupils for every teacher. In tertiary education, i.e. all educational institutions after full-time school, there are 14.8 pupils per teacher.

Government spending on education

Government spending on education amounted to around USD 12.8 billion in 2023. This corresponds to 2.8% of gross domestic product and also includes expenditure that is usually borne by the federal states and local authorities. Worldwide, this share is around 4.3 percent. Iran is therefore noticeably below the international average.

Education expenditure over time as % of GDP:

Data sources

The data on this page was provided by UNESCO (Statistical Institute of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills. All figures correspond to the latest data available to us and relate to the years 2017 - 2024.