Administrative divisions of Iran

Iran

This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Iran
Constitution 1906 Constitution Human rights LGBT rights
Leadership Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Assembly of Experts Chairman: Mohammad Yazdi
Executive President (list) Hassan Rouhani Vice Presidents First (list): Eshaq Jahangiri Other Vice Presidents Government (91st) Cabinet Supreme National Security Council Secretary: Ali Shamkhani Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution
Legislative Consultative Assembly Speaker: Ali Larijani Expediency Council Chairman: Hashemi Rafsanjani Supreme Audit Court City and Village Councils
Judicial Chief Justice Sadeq Larijani Attorney General Seyed Ebrahim Reisie General Inspection Office Ministry of Justice
Elections Guardian Council Recent elections Presidential: 2009 2013 2017 Legislative: 2008 2012 2016 Experts: 2006 2016 Local: 2003 2006 2013
Political parties Reformists Principlists
Foreign relations Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Other countries Atlas Politics portal

On the first level of country subdivisions of Iran are the provinces.

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 districts (Persian: دهستان dehestān‎‎) in each county. Rural districts are a collection of a number of villages. One of the cities of the county is appointed as the capital of the county.

According to the government of Iran,^[1] as of June 2012 (Iranian calendar 1391), the figures are as follows:

English	Persian sing.	Persian pl.	number
Provinces	استان ostān	استان‌ها ostānhā	31
Counties	شهرستان shahrestān		402
Districts	بخش bakhsh		999
cities	شهر shahr		1,167
rural districts	دهستان dehestān		2,512

Alborz

Ardabil

Bushehr

Chaharmahal
and Bakhtiari

Kohgiluyeh and
Boyer-Ahmad

Sistan and
Baluchestan

Caspian Sea

Persian Gulf

Armenia

T
u
r
k
e
y

Iraq

Kuwait

Saudi Arabia

According to the Statistical Center of Iran,^[2] the figures are as follows, as of March 2005 (end of Iranian calendar 1383):

English	Persian sing.	Persian pl.	number
Provinces	استان ostān	استان‌ها ostānhā	30
Counties	شهرستان shahrestān		324
Districts	بخش bakhsh		865
cities	شهر shahr		982
rural districts	دهستان dehestān		2378

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 district might contain one or more cities or one or more RDs (rural districts). In our example, the Central district contains City M, City N, and RD T composed of the villages V1, V2, V3, and V4, in turn; district X contains City O and RD U; and district Y has no cities and one RD V. The minimal county consists of only one city as the only district, named Central, which is most common. The county B in the following table is of such type, containing only one city Q.

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

References and notes

↑ Iranian Ministry of Interior
↑ website of the Statistical Center of Iran website in English is no longer updated (2006).

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, August 25, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.