Iran, officially Islamic Republic of Iran, republic in the Middle East, bordered to the north by Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and the Caspian Sea; to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan; to the south by the Gulf of Oman, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Persian Gulf; and to the west by Iraq and Turkey. The country was a constitutional monarchy ruled by a shah from 1906 until 1979, when a popular uprising led by Islamic religious leaders resulted in the establishment of an Islamic republic. The area of Iran is 1,648,000 sq km (636,300 sq mi). Until the 1930s Iran was known abroad as Persia. The capital and largest city is Tehran.
POPULATION
Iran has a population of 69,018,924 (2004 estimate). The average density is about 42 people per sq km (109 people per sq mi), but concentrations are much higher in the northern and western parts of the country. The population is about 66 per cent urban; the proportion of city dwellers having increased dramatically in the 1970s and 1980s. The birth rate declined much less steeply than the death rate between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s; in 2004 Iran had a population increase of about 1 per cent, following a government campaign to encourage smaller families. The infant mortality rate was 43 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2004.
LANGUAGE
The official language of Iran is Persian, or Western Farsi, one of the Indo-Iranian languages, a mother tongue for around a third of the population. Farsi emerged from the Middle Persian phase of the Persian language. The written form uses the Perso-Arabic alphabet, with many Arabic loan words. Around 67 other languages are spoken by certain groups in Iran, mostly from the Indo-Iranian family, but some Semitic and Altaic languages are spoken. South Azerbaijani is a mother tongue for 23.5 million Turki people in Iran—it has more first-language speakers than Farsi. Luri, Kurdi, Mazanderani, and Gilaki (all Indo-Iranian), Qashqa’i and Turkmen (Altaic), and Mesopotamian Spoken Arabic (Semitic) are all mother tongues for large minority groups.
RELIGION
The official religion of Iran is Ithna-Ashari (Arabic, “Twelver”) Shiism, a major sectarian division of Islam, which is followed by more than 90 per cent of the population. Some of the most sacred Shiite places are in Iran; the city of Qom, south of Tehran, is a noted place of pilgrimage. Sunni Muslims form about 9 per cent of Iran’s population, and the country also has dwindling communities of Christians and Jews (0.5 per cent together), as well as followers of Zoroastrianism and Bahai. Except for the followers of the Bahai faith, these religious minorities have inferior, but protected, status in law. As a Muslim reformist sect, those admitting to Bahai sympathies are subject to the death penalty.
POPULATION
Iran has a population of 69,018,924 (2004 estimate). The average density is about 42 people per sq km (109 people per sq mi), but concentrations are much higher in the northern and western parts of the country. The population is about 66 per cent urban; the proportion of city dwellers having increased dramatically in the 1970s and 1980s. The birth rate declined much less steeply than the death rate between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s; in 2004 Iran had a population increase of about 1 per cent, following a government campaign to encourage smaller families. The infant mortality rate was 43 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2004.
LANGUAGE
The official language of Iran is Persian, or Western Farsi, one of the Indo-Iranian languages, a mother tongue for around a third of the population. Farsi emerged from the Middle Persian phase of the Persian language. The written form uses the Perso-Arabic alphabet, with many Arabic loan words. Around 67 other languages are spoken by certain groups in Iran, mostly from the Indo-Iranian family, but some Semitic and Altaic languages are spoken. South Azerbaijani is a mother tongue for 23.5 million Turki people in Iran—it has more first-language speakers than Farsi. Luri, Kurdi, Mazanderani, and Gilaki (all Indo-Iranian), Qashqa’i and Turkmen (Altaic), and Mesopotamian Spoken Arabic (Semitic) are all mother tongues for large minority groups.
RELIGION
The official religion of Iran is Ithna-Ashari (Arabic, “Twelver”) Shiism, a major sectarian division of Islam, which is followed by more than 90 per cent of the population. Some of the most sacred Shiite places are in Iran; the city of Qom, south of Tehran, is a noted place of pilgrimage. Sunni Muslims form about 9 per cent of Iran’s population, and the country also has dwindling communities of Christians and Jews (0.5 per cent together), as well as followers of Zoroastrianism and Bahai. Except for the followers of the Bahai faith, these religious minorities have inferior, but protected, status in law. As a Muslim reformist sect, those admitting to Bahai sympathies are subject to the death penalty.
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