Restatement of the Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements (Income Statements and Other Comprehensive Income) (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	3 Months Ended
Apr. 30, 2016	Apr. 30, 2015
Error Corrections and Prior Period Adjustments Restatement [Line Items]
Cost of sales	$ 48,243	$ 49,914
Gross profit	20,117	20,359
Selling, general, and administrative expenses	7,658	9,609
Operating income	8,050	7,214
Income before income taxes	7,953	7,170
Income taxes	2,434	2,309
Net income	5,519	4,861
Net income attributable to Raven Industries, Inc.	5,517	4,855
Comprehensive income	6,129	4,847
Comprehensive income attributable to Raven Industries, Inc.	6,127	$ 4,841
As Previously Reported [Member]
Error Corrections and Prior Period Adjustments Restatement [Line Items]
Cost of sales	48,684
Gross profit	19,676
Selling, general, and administrative expenses	7,660
Operating income	7,607
Income before income taxes	7,510
Income taxes	1,985
Net income	5,525
Net income attributable to Raven Industries, Inc.	5,523
Comprehensive income	6,135
Comprehensive income attributable to Raven Industries, Inc.	6,133
Restatement Adjustments [Member]
Error Corrections and Prior Period Adjustments Restatement [Line Items]
Cost of sales	(441)
Gross profit	441
Selling, general, and administrative expenses	(2)
Operating income	443
Income before income taxes	443
Income taxes	449
Net income	(6)
Net income attributable to Raven Industries, Inc.	(6)
Comprehensive income	(6)
Comprehensive income attributable to Raven Industries, Inc.	$ (6)

Amount after tax of increase (decrease) in equity from transactions and other events and circumstances from net income and other comprehensive income, attributable to parent entity. Excludes changes in equity resulting from investments by owners and distributions to owners.

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Glossary Other Comprehensive Income
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=51831270

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Amount after tax of increase (decrease) in equity from transactions and other events and circumstances from net income and other comprehensive income. Excludes changes in equity resulting from investments by owners and distributions to owners.

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Total costs related to goods produced and sold during the reporting period.

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Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

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Aggregate revenue less cost of goods and services sold or operating expenses directly attributable to the revenue generation activity.

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Amount of income (loss) from continuing operations before deduction of income tax expense (benefit) and income (loss) attributable to noncontrolling interest, and addition of income (loss) from equity method investments.

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Amount of current income tax expense (benefit) and deferred income tax expense (benefit) pertaining to continuing operations.

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The portion of profit or loss for the period, net of income taxes, which is attributable to the parent.

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The net result for the period of deducting operating expenses from operating revenues.

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The consolidated profit or loss for the period, net of income taxes, including the portion attributable to the noncontrolling interest.

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The aggregate total costs related to selling a firm's product and services, as well as all other general and administrative expenses. Direct selling expenses (for example, credit, warranty, and advertising) are expenses that can be directly linked to the sale of specific products. Indirect selling expenses are expenses that cannot be directly linked to the sale of specific products, for example telephone expenses, Internet, and postal charges. General and administrative expenses include salaries of non-sales personnel, rent, utilities, communication, etc.

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