Introduction: The concept of change, coupled with growth in various forms has always been of interest to scholars of social sciences. However,  as of the twentieth century, special attention has been paid to the concept of development and planning to achieve the development turned out to be a worthy goal for most countries. This attention was intensified after the World War II due to the need to rebuild the destruction caused by war, as well as the independence of the former colonial countries. First, the Soviet :::::::::union::::::::: started the planning and due to its success other countries more or less started to codify a comprehensive and focused plan (with extensive government intervention in all means of production of goods and services). Iran, alongside the onset of first experiences in planning in 1948, is a pioneer in this field. In this regard, after the victory of the Islamic Revolution five development programs have been implemented. This study examines different dimensions and components of social development which have been addressed in these programs and evaluates and compares them.
 
Methods: This study is descriptive-analytical and it was conducted applying  qualitative and quantitative content analysis. Through document analysis and literature review,  the main  and secondary dimensions and components of social development were extracted (eight core dimensions and forty-four subcategories). Accordingly, the content of  the development program documents  was  analyzed and the examples of the programs which were in accordance with core dimensions and subcategories were analyzed in Excel applying quantitative content analysis.
Findings: The study findings suggest that in the fivefold development programs, components of "education", "social security and support", "environmental protection", "optimal utilization of resources", "promoting science and technology" and "adjusted gap of deprived and rich areas" have been considered. With regard to the components of "gender justice", "national cohesion", "ethnic convergence", "reduced religious divergence", "the youth", "the elderly", "family health and stability", "social security" either there have been no policies or policies have been vague
Discussion: Considering the  socio-cultural requirements of Iran’s society  and the growing trend of social problems, also lack of access to a proper global position based on vision plan, it is necessary to revise the development programs policies and pay more attention to the neglected components of  the development documents.