PROVINCES OF IRAN

'Iran' is subdivided into thirty provinces (Persian: استان ''ostān'', plural استانھا ''ostānhā''), each governed from a local center, usually the largest local city, which is called the capital (Persian: مرکز ''markaz'') of that province. The provincial authority is headed by a governor (Persian: استاندار ''ostāndār''), who is appointed by the Minister of the Interior subject to approval of the cabinet.

Contents

History

Further Subdivisions

Listing

Info

Historical Provinces of Iran

See also

References and notes

External links

History

Until 1950, Iran was divided into twelve provinces: Ardalan, Azarbaijan, Baluchestan, Fars, Gilan, Araq-e Ajam, Khorasan, Khuzestan, Kerman, Larestan, Lorestan, and Mazandaran.^[1] In 1950, Iran was reorganized to form ten numbered provinces with subordinate governorates: Gilan; Mazandaran; East Azarbaijan; West Azarbaijan; Kermanshah; Khuzestan; Fars; Kerman; Khorasan; Isfahan.¹ From 1960 to 1981 the governorates were raised to provincial status one by one. Since then several new provinces have been created, most recently in 2004 when the province of Khorasan was split into three new provinces.^[2]

Further Subdivisions

Each province is further subdivided into counties called shahrestan (Persian: شهرستان ''shahrestān''), and each shahrestan is subdivided into districts called bakhsh (Persian: بخش ''bakhsh''). There are usually a few cities (Persian: شهر ''shahr'') and rural agglomerations (Persian: دهستان ''dehestān'') in each county. Rural agglomerations are a collection of a number of villages. One of the cities of the county is appointed as the capital of the county.
To better understand such subdivisions, the following table may be helpful. Assume that province P is divided into two counties: A and B. County A has 3 districts: Central, X, and Y. The Central district is the district that contains City M, the capital of the county. Each distcirt might contain one or more cities and/or one or more RAs (rural agglomerations). In our example, the Central district contains City M, City N, and RA T composed of the villages V1, V2, V3, and V4, in turn; district X contains City O and RA U; and district Y has no cities and one RA V. The minimal county consists of only one city as the only district, named Central, of course. The county B in the following table is of such type, containing only one city Q.

Province	County	District	City / RA ★	Villages
P	A	Central	City M (c)
			City N
			RA T	V1, V2, V3, V4
		X	City O
			RA U	V5, V6
		Y	RA V	V7, V8, V9
	B	Central	City Q

Listing

According to the Statistical Center of Iran^[3], the figures are as follows, as of March 2005 (end of Iranian Calendar 1383):

★ Number of Ostans (provinces): 30

★ Number of Shahrestans (counties): 324

★ Number of Bakhshes (districts) : 865

★ Number of Shahrs (townships) : 982

★ Number of Dehestans (rural agglomerations): 2378

Info

Province	Capital	Area(km²)[4]	Population[5]	Density (people/km²)	Shahrestans
Ardabil[6]	Ardabil	17,800	1,257,624	70.7	9
Azarbaijan, East	Tabriz	45,650	3,500,183	76.7	19
Azarbaijan, West	Urmia[7]	37,437	2,949,426	78.8	14
Bushehr[8]	Bushehr	22,743	816,115	35.9	9
Chahar Mahaal and Bakhtiari[9]	Shahrekord	16,332	842,002	51.6	6
Fars	Shiraz	122,608	4,385,869	35.8	23
Gilan	Rasht	14,042	2,410,523	171.7	16
Golestan[10]	Gorgan	20,195	1,637,063	81.1	11
Hamadan[11]	Hamadan	19,368	1,738,772	89.8	8
Hormozgan[12][13]	Bandar Abbas	70,669	1,314,667	18.6	11
Ilam11	Ilam	20,133	545,093	27.1	7
Isfahan18	Isfahan	107,029	4,454,595	41.6	21
Kerman	Kerman	180,836	2,432,927	13.5	14
Kermanshah[14]	Kermanshah14	24,998	1,938,060	77.5	13
Khorasan, North[15]	Bojnourd	28,434	786,918	27.7	6
Khorasan, Razavi15	Mashhad	144,681	5,202,770	36.0	19
Khorasan, South15	Birjand	69,555	510,218	7.3	4
Khuzestan	Ahvaz	64,055	4,345,607	67.8	18
Kohkiluyeh and Buyer Ahmad16Yasuj	15,504	695,099	44.8	5
Kurdistan24	Sanandaj	29,137	1,574,118	54.0	9
Lorestan[16]	Khorramabad	28,294	1,758,628	62.2	9
Markazi[17][18]	Arak	29,130	1,361,394	46.7	10
Mazandaran	Sari	23,701	2,818,831	118.9	15
Qazvin[19]	Qazvin	15,549	1,166,861	75.0	5
Qom[20]	Qom	11,526	1,064,456	92.4	1
Semnan1718	Semnan	97,491	589,512	6.0	4
Sistan and Baluchistan[21]	Zahedan	181,785	2,290,076	12.6	8
Tehran[22]	Tehran	18,814	12,150,742	645.8	13
Yazd9[23]	Yazd	129,285	958,318	7.4	10
Zanjan[24]18	Zanjan	21,773	970,946	44.6	7
'Iran'	'Tehran'	'1,628,554'	'68,467,413'	'42.0'	'324'

Historical Provinces of Iran

See also

★ List of current Iranian provincial governors

★ Counties of Iran

References and notes

1. "Provinces of Iran"
2. "Iran breaks up largest province"
3. website of the Statistical Center of Iran website in English is no longer updated (2006).
4. "General Characteristics of Ostans according to their administrative divisions at the end of 1383 (2005 CE)"
5. "Population estimation by urban and rural areas, 2005"
6. Until 1993, Ardabil was part of East Azarbaijan province.
7. Until 1979, the city was known as Rezaiyeh.
8. Originally part of Fars province. Until 1977, the province was known as ''Khalij-e Fars'' (Persian Gulf).
9. Originally part of Isfahan province.
10. On 1997-05-31, the shahrestans of Aliabad, Gonbad-e-kavus, Gorgan, Kordkuy, Minudasht, and Torkaman were separated from Mazandaran province to form Golestan province.
11. Originally part of Kermanshah province.
12. Originally part of Kerman province. Until 1977, the province was known as ''Banader va Jazayer-e Bahr-e Oman'' (Ports and Islands of the Sea of Oman).
13. Hormozgan includes several islands such as Qeshm, Lavan, Kish and Hormoz as well as Abu Musa island which is jointly administered by Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
14. Between 1979 and 1995 Kermanshah province and its capital, were both known as Bakhtaran.
15. On 2004-09-29, Khorasan was divided into three provinces. North Khorasan; Razavi Khorasan; South Khorasan.
16. Originally part of Khuzestan province.
17. Originally part of Mazandaran province.
18. In 1986, some parts of Markazi province were transferred to Isfahan, Semnan, and Zanjan provinces.
19. On 1996-12-31, the shahrestans of Qazvin and Takestan were separated from Zanjan province to form the province of Qazvin.
20. Until 1995, Qom was a shahrestan of Tehran province.
21. Until 1986, the province was known as ''Baluchestan and Sistan''.
22. Until 1986, Tehran was part of Markazi province.
23. In 1986, part of Kerman province was transferred to Yazd province. In 2002, Tabas shahrestan (area: 55,344 km²) was transferred from Khorasan province to Yazd.
24. Originally part of Gilan province.

External links

★ Statistical Centre, Government of Iran

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