Checking claims about Iran's female literacy, STEM graduate rates

In late June 2025, social media users circulated a claim that Iran's female literacy rate is 98.9% and 70% of the country's university graduates in STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — were women. 

These allegedly legitimate statistics spread on X, Reddit and Facebook. One post on X had over 150,000 likes as of this writing. 

The aforementioned posts do not cite accurate statistics. UNESCO, the United Nations organization, estimated the literacy rate in Iran for female residents over 15 years old at 85% in 2022, the most recent year calculations were available. However, UNESCO estimated Iran's youth female literacy rate — encompassing ages 15 to 24 — at about 99% that same year. At that time, women encompassed 25% of Iran's graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. As the social media posts' statistics are largely wrong, but the data point on female literacy being circulated online appears somewhat based in truth, we rate this claim a mixture of truth and falsehood. 

Youth literacy rate vs general literacy rate

The most recently available UNESCO data for Iran's youth literacy rate based on survey and census results actually comes from 2016, with a rate of 98% among female residents over 15 years old. UNESCO also provides an estimate of Iran's female youth literacy rate using the "Global Age-Specific Literacy Projections Model," which projects literacy rates based on empirical data. That is where the 99% data point comes from, as the projections model estimated that 99% of Iran's female youth in 2022 — defined as ages 15 to 24 — were literate. Globally, 90% of young women from the same age group had basic literacy skills in 2016 (see Page 3). 

However, the rate of literacy among Iran's female population in general lags behind the youth rate. UNESCO's 2016 data puts the literacy rate for the country's female residents aged 15 and older at 81% in 2016 and projected it at 85% in 2022. In contrast, the global literacy rate for women aged 15 and older was 83% in 2016, according to Page 3 of this UNESCO fact sheet, and approximately 84% in 2022, according to a World Bank Group analysis of UNESCO data. Thus, Iran's literacy rates among women hovered slightly higher than the global average in 2022. (UNESCO does not keep data for the United States' literacy rates.)

Projected adult literacy rate among Iran's female residents in 2022, aged 15-24 and aged 15+.  (UNESCO UIS Data Explorer)

Iran's female youth literacy rate, aged 15-24, and female adult literacy rate, aged 15+, in 2016.  (UNESCO UIS Data Explorer)

Female STEM graduate statistics

The 70% STEM graduate statistic may be based on (usually) reputable sources: For example, Bloomberg claimed in a 2012 story that 68% of "science graduates" in Iran were women and Forbes claimed in a 2015 story, without citing evidence, that "70% of Iran's science and engineering students are women." (UNESCO does not appear to collect specific statistics on science graduates, only STEM graduates and those going into natural sciences, statistics and mathematics.) 

However, UNESCO data clearly shows the percentage of Iran's female STEM graduates has never reached over 35% since 2003, the first year data appears available. Still, Iran's rate of female STEM graduates sails above the United States, where women made up only 12.7% of STEM graduates as of the most recently available data from 2021. Globally, from 2018 to 2023, women accounted for 35% of STEM graduates, according to UNESCO, meaning both Iran and the United States appear to fall behind the rest of the world. 

Percentage of graduates from Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics programs in tertiary education, female (%). Tertiary education refers to any education past high school.  (UNESCO UIS Data Browser)

UNESCO did not immediately respond to an inquiry asking whether the organization knew where Bloomberg and Forbes got their numbers from; nor did the authors of the two stories.