Iran Tension Score
indexed · 49 days on fileLive 0–100 tension reading for Iran, built by our own engine from 19,188 world headlines in the last 30 days. Refreshed every 10 minutes; a fresh headline count twice a day.
Where Iran stands
#3 of 197 countries today, #2 of 16 in Middle East (region score 78). Tension is easing this week.
Same 0–100 scale and zones as the World Tension Index.
Iran news pulse
60 headlines in 30 days · newest firstEvery story the engine read that names Iran, its capital or its leaders. Links go to the original outlet; the badge is the engine’s own 0–100 tension weight. This list is what moves the number above.
What is driving Iran’s tension score
last 30 days- 1577 headlines in 30 days — 8.22% of everything the engine read, in line with the previous 30 days (1180).
- 61% of those were violent (attacks, strikes, casualties) and 84% scored as high-tension stories.
- Conflicts on the roster: US-Israel-Iran War (active).
- Region: Middle East reads 78 today; it carries 15% of this score.
Read it like this. Attention (how much the world is talking about Iran) is the biggest input at 30%. Violence and high-tension share tell you what kind of talk it is. A country can be loud and calm — an election, a summit — or quiet and dangerous. The mix is the point.
Iran tension month by month
average score, headline counts| Month | Avg score | Zone | Headlines | Violent | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2026 | 70.0 | High Tension | 390 | 233 | 5 |
| October 2026 | 68.0 | High Tension | 1474 | 885 | 31 |
| September 2026 | 64.4 | Moderate | 893 | 417 | 13 |
Record for Iran began on 18 September 2026. Nothing is revised after the fact.
How the Iran score is built
Five inputs, fixed weights. Attention 30% (share of world coverage), violence 25% and high-tension share 15% (what kind of coverage), roster conflicts 15%, and the Middle East region score 15%. A momentum nudge (+6 / −4) rewards a country whose coverage is accelerating or fading.
Same physics as the world score. The number rises 85% of the way to its new level at once and falls no faster than 3 points a day — fear arrives fast and leaves slowly.
No third-party index inside. Every count comes from the 41 public news feeds our engine reads itself; the full method is on the methodology page. Data is free under CC BY 4.0 via the API.
Questions people ask about Iran
Is Iran in a war right now?
Yes, by our roster: US-Israel-Iran War. Status is updated on every full cycle.
Is tension in Iran rising or falling?
Easing: down 8 points in 7 days.
How does Iran compare with the rest of Middle East?
Below its region: Iran reads 67 against 78 for Middle East, ranking #2 of 16 there.
Keep exploring
Same region
Yemen 69 · Israel 67 · Palestine 55 · Saudi Arabia 55 · Syria 48 · Kuwait 47
The bigger picture
All countries on the map · Middle East · World Tension Index · active conflicts · escalation watchlist
Iran and world tension: the long view
evergreen · World Tension Meter teamThe country that moves the oil price. Iran sits on the north shore of the Strait of Hormuz, the lane a fifth of the world’s oil passes through. When Tehran and its rivals raise their voices, tankers, insurers and petrol pumps hear it within hours.
A forty-year confrontation. Since 1979 Iran has been in a standing contest with the United States and Israel, fought through sanctions, proxies and, at times, direct strikes. Our engine treats that rivalry as a permanent baseline, and scores how loud it is right now.
Why the number swings. Iran is rarely quiet and never boring: nuclear talks, tanker seizures, missile tests and internal protests all land in the same corpus. A calm Iran week is unusual enough to be a signal on its own.
What our engine watches in Iran
- Hormuz shipping traffic, tanker incidents and insurance chatter
- Sanctions packages and enforcement against its oil, banks and shadow fleet
- Missile, drone and nuclear headlines — the fastest movers of the score
- Protest and economic-crisis coverage, which raises the internal-stability signal
Indexes to follow: Energy Security · Shipping Stress · Sanctions Pressure · Market Fear.