Emperical Evaluation of Inglehart's Theory in Iran:Relationship between Development and level of Religiosity

The main question of the present paper is whether the theory of Inglehart regarding the level of development and degree of religiosity is capable of explaining variance of religiosity in Iran. Based on the Inglehart’s theory as theoretical framework of the present paper, two hypotheses have been formulated: 1) There is negative relationship between the level of socio-economic development and level of religiosity; 2) There is a positive relationship between economic inequality and levels of religiosity. The mentioned hypotheses have been tested and analyze based on the existing secondary data, using correlation and regression techniques. The results showed that there are no strong relations between the level of socioeconomic development and economic inequality with the level of religiosity. This result can be a challenge for the application of the this theory at macro level to the situation of Iran.