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Social development is one of the most pervasive aspects of development. This article has addressed the analysis of barriers to social development in Iran regarding governmental universities faculty members' viewpoints. data collection was done via reviews and survey. The research sample consisted of 131 faculty members selected through purposeful sampling whose view toward social development barriers was questioned. As the first step open reviews were used to identify the main components and then in the second one. The data was collected through structured questionnaire. Face validity and Cronbach coefficient alpha were used to assess the validity and reliability of the assessment tools. The result indicated that the economic, political, cultural, and social barriers had been recognized as the most important ones to social development, respectively. For instance; corruption network, governmental economy, and lack of meritocracy have been considered as the most important barriers to the country social development, respectively. It was concluded that economic and political barriers have been introduced as the most important deterring factors to social development.