Iran

Region: Asia and Oceania
 

Classification of economies by geographic region is based on that of the United Nations Statistics Division.

Middle Income
 

Based on the income levels set out by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in its Global Competitiveness Report. However, the groupings are slightly different due to the numbers of economies covered. For GEM, the low income group contains both those classified as low income and lower middle by WEF, and the middle income group has those that WEF groups as upper middle. High income is the same for both GEM and WEF.

Population: 81.2 million (2018)
 

Population data is from the World Bank, except Palestinian Territories World Population Review and Taiwan Worldometers

GDP Growth: -4% (2018)
 

GDP growth data is from the World Economic Outlook Database, except Palestinian Territories Worldometers

GDP Per Capita: $5,290 (2017)
 

GDP per capita data is from the World Economic Outlook Database, except Palestinian Territories Worldometers

Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Attitudes

Most recent data: 2023
  • Iran 2023
  • Iran 2022
  • Global Average
  • Regional Average
  • Income Level Average

Self-Perceptions

  • 1
     
    Perceived Opportunities Rate:Percentage of 18-64 population (individuals involved in any stage of entrepreneurial activity excluded) who see good opportunities to start a firm in the area where they live
  • 2
     
    Perceived Capabilities Rate:Percentage of 18-64 population (individuals involved in any stage of entrepreneurial activity excluded) who believe they have the required skills and knowledge to start a business
  • 3
     
    Fear of Failure Rate*:Percentage of the 18–64 population who agree that they see good opportunities but would not start a business for fear it might fail. NOTE: this is a percentage of those seeing good opportunities, and not the total adult population
  • 4
     
    Entrepreneurial Intentions Rate:Percentage of 18-64 population (individuals involved in any stage of entrepreneurial activity excluded) who are latent entrepreneurs and who intend to start a business within three years
  • 1. Perceived Opportunities Rate
  • 2. Perceived Capabilities Rate
  • 3. Fear of Failure Rate*
  • 4. Entrepreneurial Intentations Rate:

Activity

  • 1
     
    Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA):Percentage of 18-64 population who are either a nascent entrepreneur or owner-manager of a new business
  • 2
     
    Established Business Ownership Rate:Percentage of 18-64 population who are currently an owner-manager of an established business, i.e., owning and managing a running business that has paid salaries, wages, or any other payments to the owners for more than 42 months
  • 3
     
    Entrepreneurial Employee Activity Rate:Rate of involvement of employees in entrepreneurial activities, such as developing or launching new goods or services, or setting up a new business unit, a new establishment or subsidiary
  • 1. Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA)
  • 2. Established Business Ownership Rate
  • 3. Entrepreneurial Employee Activity Rate

Motivations

  • 1
     
    Motivational Index:Percentage of those involved in TEA that are improvement-driven opportunity motivated, divided by the percentage of TEA that is necessity-motivated
  • 1. Motivational Index

Gender Equity

  • 1
     
    Female/Male TEA Ratio:Percentage of female 18-64 population who are either a nascent entrepreneur or owner-manager of a 'new business', divided by the equivalent percentage for their male counterparts
  • 2
     
    Female/Male Opportunity-Driven TEA Ratio:Percentage of those females involved in TEA who (i) claim to be driven by opportunity as opposed to finding no other option for work; and (ii) who indicate the main driver for being involved in this opportunity is being independent or increasing their income, rather than just maintaining their income, divided by the equivalent percentage for their male counterparts
  • 1. Female/Male TEA Ratio
  • 2. Female/Male Opportunity-Driven TEA Ratio

Impact

  • 1
     
    High Job Creation Expectation Rate:Percentage of those involved in TEA who expect to create 6 or more jobs in 5 years
  • 2
     
    Innovation Rate:Percentage of those involved in TEA who indicate that their product or service is new to at least some customers AND that few/no businesses offer the same product
  • 3
     
    Business Services Sector Rate:Percentage of those involved in TEA in the 'Business Services' sector - Information and Communication, Financial Intermediation and Real Estate, Professional Services or Administrative Services, as defined by the ISIC 4.0 Business Type Codebook
  • 1. High Job Creation Expectation Rate
  • 2. Innovation Rate
  • 3. Business Services Sector Rate

Societal Values

  • 1
     
    High Status to Successful Entrepreneurs Rate:Percentage of 18-64 population who agree with the statement that in their country, successful entrepreneurs receive high status
  • 2
     
    Entrepreneurship as a Good Career Choice Rate:Percentage of 18-64 population who agree with the statement that in their country, most people consider starting a business as a desirable career choice
  • 1. High Status to Successful Entrepreneurs Rate
  • 2. Entrepreneurship as a Good Career Choice Rate

Entrepreneurial Framework Conditions

Most recent data: 2023

Expert Ratings: 1 = highly insufficient, 5 = highly sufficient

  • Iran 2023
  • Iran 2022
  • Regional Average
  • Income Level Average
  • Global Average
  • Iran 2023
  • Iran 2022
  • Regional Average
  • Income Level Average
  • Global Average

2023 POLICY ROADMAP

Real GDP in Iran looked set to increase by 4% in 2023, driven by its services and manufacturing sectors. Inflation had been coming down, and likely to reach just 40% in 2023.1

2023 Framework Conditions Review2

Iran continues to be a difficult place in which to start a business. The assessed quality of its overall entrepreneurial environment had actually improved in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, but then fell, partially recovered in 2022, and then fell sharply again in 2023.

In 2023, Iran’s national experts scored all 13 Entrepreneurial Framework Conditions (EFCs) as
less than sufficient (score <5.0), with 10 rated as very poor (score <3.0). Weakest of all was Entrepreneurial Education at School, with its score ranked lowest of the 49 economies, as were five other conditions. In 2023, Iran’s strongest condition was Ease of Entry: Market Dynamics, the highest-ranked condition among Level C economies.

All 13 conditions had lower scores in 2023 than a year earlier, with the largest falls being for Physical Infrastructure, previously a strength, and for Commercial and Professional Infrastructure. The average of the framework condition scores is labelled by GEM as the National Entrepreneurial Context Index (NECI), and these lower condition scores drove this down to 2.8 in 2023, ranked lowest in GEM. In 2022, the score was 3.6.

2023 Entrepreneurial Activity Review

In the GEM Adult Population Survey (APS), just under two in five adults in Iran reported that their household income had fallen in 2023, a proportion that has been gradually shrinking from the one in five of 2020.

The public profile of entrepreneurship in Iran was very much a mixed picture. More than one in two adults knew someone who had recently started a business, but just one in four saw good opportunities to start a business locally, the lowest proportion in GEM. However, just one in four of those seeing good opportunities would be deterred by fear of failure, the second lowest in GEM, and more than three in five adults in Iran considered they had the skills and experience to start a business themselves. So in brief we can see good awareness of entrepreneurship, high confidence and low fear of failure, but low levels of opportunity recognition.

The proportion of adults who were already starting or running a new business was just under one in 10, third lowest in Level C, down from one in six the year before. Men were a little more likely than women
to be starting a business, with around five men doing so for every four women. Established Business Ownership was reasonably high at just under one in 10.

Building great wealth or very high income was by far the dominant motivation among those starting new businesses, agreed by more than nine in 10, well ahead of the two in three agreeing with to earn a living because jobs are scarce. One in eight new entrepreneurs had customers beyond Iran, and just over one in 10 expected to employ at least another six people over the next five years.
 

  1. 1  Sources: imf.org, statista.com

  2. 2  A brief description of the GEM approach is given in the GEM Global Report

Iran Reports

Name
Report information
pdf
  • Year of publication: 2019
  • Category: National Reports
  • Language: Persian
  • Upload date: 2020-12-23

  • National Entrepreneurship Assessment Iran 2019-2020
  • URL: https://gemconsortium.org/report/50603
 GEM IRAN Report 2019
Report information
pdf
  • Year of publication: 2019
  • Category: National Reports
  • Language: Persian
  • Upload date: 2020-12-23

  • National Entrepreneurship Assessment Iran گزارش حاوی اطلاعاتی در زمینه معرفی چارچوب برنامه پژوهشی دیده بان جهانی کارآفرینی، ارزیابی شاخصهای فعالیت کارآفرینانه و همچنین تحلیل اکوسیستم کارآفرینانه (محیط کسب و کار) در کشور می باشد
  • URL: https://gemconsortium.org/report/50604
 GEM IRAN Report 2019
Report information
pdf
GEM Iran Report 2018
Report information
pdf
GEM Iran Report 2018
Report information
pdf
GEM Iran report 2017/18
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