Economy

Imports
$28.7 billion (2021).  Broadcasting Equipment ($3.86B), Corn ($1.52B), Soybeans ($870M), Motor vehicles; parts and accessories (8701 to 8705) ($734M), and Rice ($671M), importing mostly from China ($8.27B), United Arab Emirates ($6.58B), Turkey ($2.66B), Brazil ($1.94B), and Germany ($1.64B).

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 93% have an account with a financial institution
• 9.1% have a credit card
• 26% have a mobile money account
• 46% make online purchases

Ease of doing business
Ease of conducting business is below average (rated 58.5 out of 100) ranked 14th out of 20 North African and Middle Eastern countries, ranked 127th out of 190 countries worldwide (2022, World Bank).

Exports
$14 billion (2021). Ethylene Polymers ($3.2B), Other Nuts ($925M), Semi-Finished Iron ($816M), Refined Copper ($673M), and Acyclic Alcohols ($561M), exporting mostly to China ($5.94B), Turkey ($2.72B), Pakistan ($614M), Armenia ($406M), and India ($379M).

Main local online stores
Digikala, Bamilo, Esam, Modiseh, Shixon, IranEcar, Raja, Cinematicket, Amazon, Alibaba

Economic freedom
‘Mostly not free’ (rated 42.2 out of 100) ranked 14th out of 14 countries in the Middle East ranked 169th out of 186 countries worldwide (2023, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).

Source: Statista

Source: OEC

Media

Media language Persian, English

Information channels
The struggle for influence and power in Iran is played out in the media. All broadcasting from Iranian soil is controlled by the state and reflects official ideology. A wider range of opinions is found online and in the press. Iran is “among the five biggest prisons in the world” for media workers, says Reporters Without Borders. The group says journalists are “constantly exposed to intimidation, arbitrary arrest, and long jail sentences imposed by revolutionary courts at the end of unfair trials”. Television is the leading medium. State-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting – IRIB – operates national and provincial services. Its international networks include English-language Press TV. The most-watched domestic network is IRIB’s youth channel. Despite a ban on using satellite equipment, foreign TVs are widely watched; this is largely tolerated by the authorities. Dozens of Persian-language stations broadcast from the USA, Europe and Dubai. Western broadcasters, including BBC Persian TV, target Iranian audiences. Their satellite broadcasts have suffered from deliberate interference from within Iran. IRIB’s radio channels include a parliamentary network, Radio Koran and a multilingual external service. There are some 50 national dailies, but few Iranians buy a newspaper every day. Sports titles are the biggest sellers.

Iran online

The web is the main forum for voices of dissident. But the internet is also embraced by all parts of the social and political spectrum, including conservative and pro-establishment activists. The authorities routinely block or filter websites they consider objectionable. Targeted content includes that deemed to be pornographic or anti-Islamic. Iranians use virtual private networks (VPNs) and other methods to circumvent filtering. Facebook, although blocked, is among the most popular social media platforms. Twitter is blocked for ordinary citizens, but leaders and senior officials are active on it. Instagram is a staple of social media life and Iranians are avid users of mobile messaging services, especially Telegram. There has been sporadic disruption to Telegram services within Iran. Iran announced in 2016 that it had completed the first phase of a national information network (NIN). The project aims to create a stand-alone domestic

The press

Iran – the “official” paper, representing government policies, published by the state news agency IRNA
Tehran Times – state-run English-language daily
Iran Daily – English-language, published by state news agency IRNA
Javan – affiliated to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)
Sharg (The East) – reformist daily
E’temad – reformist daily
Kayhan (Universe) – conservative daily
Resalat (Message) – conservative daily
Jomhuri-ye-Eslami (Islamic Republic) – conservative daily
Jaam-e Jam (Jam’s Cup) – large-circulation daily published by IRIB

Television

IRIB – state-run, operates provincial, national and international services
Press TV – IRIB’s English-language satellite channel
Al-Alam – IRIB network in Arabic

Radio

IRIB – state-run, operates eight national networks, provincial services and an external service

News agency

Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) – state-run, English-language pages
Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) – English-language pages
Fars News Agency – affiliated to Revolutionary Guards, English-language pages
Mehr News Agency – affiliated to Islamic Propagation Organisation, English-language pages
Tasnim News Agency – affiliated to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps
Nour News – affiliated to the Supreme National Security Council

Internet Data

Internet users
78.6% penetration, 69.83 million

Share of web traffic by device
75.41% mobile phones, 23.21% computers (laptops and desktops), 1.37% tablet devices and 0.01% other devices. 

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
40.97  Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
11.62 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 142.8%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 85.7%

Most popular web search engines
Google (99.35%), Bing (0.53%), Yahoo (0.08%), DuckduckGo (0.02%), Yandex (0.01%), other (0.01%).

Most used social media
Instagram (45.75%), Facebook (15.11%), YouTube (9.8%), Twitter (8.98%), Pinterest (8.09%), LinkedIn (5.8%), Reddit (3.48%), other (2.99%).

Social statistics

Life expectancy
74 yrs (2021)

Healthcare expenditure
5.34% of GDP

Current education expenditure
92.9% of total expenditure in public institutions

CO2 emissions
7.1 metric tons per capita

Corruption perceptions Index
Iran scored 25 out of 100, ranked 147 out of 180 countries worldwide.

World Happiness Index
Iran ranked 110 out of 137 countries, with a score of 4.888.