Skip to main content
Population Review

World Bank · 14 metrics compared

Iran, Islamic Rep. vs South Africa

Iran, Islamic Rep. and South Africa compared across 14 demographic and economic metrics. Iran, Islamic Rep. leads in 7 of the comparable categories.

MetricIran, Islamic Rep.South Africa
Population90,608,70763,212,384
GDP Per Capita$5,049$6,034
Life Expectancy77.766.1
Population Growth Rate1.201.33
Urban Population76.7%63.6%
Fertility Rate1.702.22
Infant Mortality (per 1000)10.624.3
Literacy Rate88.9%90.0%
Unemployment Rate8.1%32.1%
Internet Users81.7%78.3%
CO2 Per Capita (tonnes)--
Physicians Per 10001.810.79
Gini Index35.954.1
Forest Area6.6%14.0%

Related Comparisons

Frequently Asked Questions

Iran, Islamic Rep. has a population of 90,608,707 compared to South Africa's 63,212,384.

Across the metrics compared, Iran, Islamic Rep. leads in 7 categories while South Africa leads in 3. However, "better" depends on what matters most to you, income, cost of living, education, climate, and personal preferences all play a role.

International data from the World Bank Open Data API. Population and economic data are latest available estimates.

Comparison based on World Bank Open Data. Most recent available year used for each metric. Green highlighting indicates favorable values where applicable.