Demographics of Iran

The population of Iran increased to about 88 million people by 2023. In recent years, the birth rate in Iran has decreased significantly. While during the years 1976 to 1986, the average annual population growth was approximately 4%, in 2022, this growth has decreased to 0.71%.

Real photo

Languages

The largest linguistic group comprises speakers of Iranian languages, like modern Persian, Kurdish, Gilaki, Mazandarani, Luri, Talyshi, and Balochi. Speakers of Turkic languages, most notably Azerbaijanis, which is by far the second-most spoken language in the country, but also the Turkmen, and the Qashqai peoples, comprise a substantial minority. The remainder are primarily speakers of Semitic languages such as Arabic and Assyrian. There are small groups using other Indo-European languages such as Armenian, Russian, Pashto; Georgian (a member of the Kartvelian language family), spoken in a large pocket only by those Iranian Georgians that live in Fereydan, Fereydunshahr.

The most populous cities in Iran in 2015

Religion

About 99% of the Iranians are Muslims; 90% belong to the Shi’a branch of Islam, the official state religion, and about 9% belong to the Sunni branch, which predominates in neighboring Muslim countries. Less than 1% non Muslim minorities include Christians, Zoroastrians, Jews, Bahá’ís, Mandaeans, and Yarsan. Now, the largest group of Christians in Iran are the Armenians under the supervision of the Armenian Apostolic Church, which has a population of 120,000There are tens of Christian churches in Iran. The estimated population of Assyrian Christians is around 20,000. In 2009, there were an estimated 5,000 Mandaeans in Iran, according to the Associated Press. Zoroastrianism was once the majority religion, though today Zoroastrians number only in the ten thousands. Iran is home to the second largest Jewish community in the Muslim World and the Middle East. Armenian and Assyrian Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians are officially recognized and have seats in the Iranian Parliament.