The first level of
country subdivision
Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...
s of Iran are the
provinces
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...
( fa, استانها ; ''ostānhā'').
Each province is further subdivided into counties called
shahrestan ( fa, شهرستان, translit=shahrestān), and each county (or shahrestan) is subdivided into districts called
bakhsh
A ( fa, بخش, also romanized as ) is a third-level administrative division of Iran. While sometimes translated as "county," it is more accurately translated as "district," similar to a township in the United States or a district of En ...
( fa, بخش, translit=bakhsh). There are usually a few cities ( fa, شهر, translit=shahr) and rural districts called
dehestan ( fa, دهستان, translit=dehestān) in each district (or bakhsh). 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 Statistical Center of Iran, the figures are as follows, (end of
Iranian calendar
The Iranian calendars or Iranian chronology ( fa, گاهشماری ایرانی, ) are a succession of calendars invented or used for over two millennia in Iran, also known as Persia. One of the longest chronological records in human history, ...
1394):
[https://www.amar.org.ir/Portals/0/Geo/GEO94-summary.pdf ]
Guide
The total population of a province is the total of its counties.
The total population of a county is the total of its districts.
The total poulation of a district is the total of its cities and rural districts.
To better understand these subdivisions, the following table for
Sepidan County
Sepidan County ( fa, شهرستان سپیدان) is located in Fars province, Iran. The capital of the county is Ardakan
Ardakan ( fa, اردكان, also romanized as Ardakān and Artagan) is the capital city of Ardakan County, Yazd Provinc ...
in
Fars province (as it existed in 2006) is an example showing the hierarchy of a county's divisions:
See also
*
Ostan (Geography)
Iran is subdivided into thirty-one provinces ( fa, استان ''ostân''), each governed from a local centre, usually the largest local city, which is called the capital (Persian: , '' markaz'') of that province. The provincial authority is h ...
*
-stan
The suffix -stan ( fa, ـستان, translit=''stân'' after a vowel; ''estân'' or ''istân'' after a consonant), has the meaning of "a place abounding in" or "a place where anything abounds" in the Persian language. It appears in the names of ...
*
-abad
Oikonyms in Western, Central, South, and Southeast Asia can be grouped according to various components, reflecting common linguistic and cultural histories. Toponymic study is not as extensive as it is for placenames in Europe and Anglophone part ...
References and notes
{{reflist
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
Government of Iran