Iranian Canadians or Persian Canadians are Canadians of Iranian origin. From the 2016 Canadian census, the main communities can be found in

Southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a Region, primary region of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada, with approximately 13.5 million people, approximately 36% o ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, and

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. a total of 97,110 Iranians reside in the

Greater Toronto Area The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the Toronto, City of Toronto and the regional municipality, regional municipalities of Regional Municipality of Durham, Durham, Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton, Regional ...

, 46,255 in the Greater Vancouver Area, and 23,410 in the Greater Montreal Area, with the remainder spread out in the other major cities of Canada, based on the 2016 Canadian Census. These numbers represent the people who stated "Iranian" as their single or joint ethnic origin in the census survey.

Terminology

Iranian-Canadian is used interchangeably with Persian-Canadian, partly due to the fact that, in the

Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

was known as "Persia". On the

Nowruz Nowruz (, , () , () , () , () , Kurdish language, Kurdish: () , () , () , () , , , , () , , ) is the Iranian or Persian New Year. Historically, it has been observed by Iranian peoples, but is now celebrated by many ...

of 1935, Reza Shah Pahlavi asked foreign delegates to use the term Iran, the

endonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

of the country used since the

Sasanian Empire The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...

, in formal correspondence. Since then the use of the word "Iran" has become more common in the Western countries. This also changed the usage of the terms for Iranian nationality, and the common adjective for citizens of Iran changed from "Persian" to "Iranian". In 1959, the government of

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (26 October 1919 – 27 July 1980) was the last List of monarchs of Iran, Shah of Iran, ruling from 1941 to 1979. He succeeded his father Reza Shah and ruled the Imperial State of Iran until he was overthrown by the ...

, Reza Shah Pahlavi's son, announced that both "Persia" and "Iran" could officially be used interchangeably.Yarshater, Ehsa
Persia or Iran, Persian or Farsi
, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) However the issue is still debated today. Majd, Hooman, ''The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran'', by Hooman Majd,

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the followin ...

, September 23, 2008, , 9780385528429. p
161
/ref> While the majority of Iranian-Canadians come from Persian backgrounds, there is a significant number of non-Persian Iranians such as Azeris and

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

within the Iranian-Canadian community, leading some scholars to believe that the label "Iranian" is more inclusive, since the label "Persian" excludes non-Persian minorities. The ''

Collins English Dictionary The ''Collins English Dictionary'' is a printed and online dictionary of English. It is published by HarperCollins in Glasgow. It was first published in 1979. Corpus The dictionary uses language research based on the Collins Corpus, which is ...

'' uses a variety of similar and overlapping definitions for the terms "Persian" and "Iranian".

Demography

Population

Immigration

In 2021, there were 213,160 individuals in Canada who had been born in Iran, of which 70,395 had immigrated to Canada since 2011.

Religion

Among all Iranian-Canadians, 103,560 (49%) identified as Muslim. Among immigrants since 2011, about 39,860 (57%) identified as Muslim while most of the rest did not identify with any religion.

Geographical distribution

Provinces & territories

British Columbia

* North Vancouver (District) *

North Vancouver (City) The City of North Vancouver is a North Shore (Greater Vancouver), municipality city on the North Shore of the Burrard Inlet, in British Columbia, Canada. Anchored by the downtown town centre of Lonsdale, with which its urban core largely syno ...

* West Vancouver *

Burnaby Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard In ...

Coquitlam Coquitlam ( ) is a city in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Mainly suburban, Coquitlam is the List of cities in British Columbia, sixth-largest city in the province, with an estimated population of 174,248 in 2024, and one of th ...

Ontario

* Richmond Hill *

Vaughan Vaughan ( ) (2022 population 344,412) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increa ...

* Markham * Thornhill

Islamic republic politicians/sympathizers

Canada in 2022 banned ten thousand IRGC seniors and officers from entry. Iranian celebrities and government former ministers and officials are often mentioned in the news residing or traveling in Canada as well.

Notable Canadians of Iranian descent

Persian Newspaper Shahrvand in Toronto Editorial Team 2014

Academia

Persian Plaza - Yonge Street - Toronto 2014

* Payam Akhavan, pioneer in international criminal law and leading human rights advocate;

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

* Kaveh Farrokh, historian * Ramin Jahanbegloo, philosopher and university professor * Ali Khademhosseini, Associate Professor of Medicine; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology * Shahrzad Mojab, Professor of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education;

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

Reza Zadeh Reza Zadeh () is an American computer scientist and technology executive working on machine learning. He is adjunct professor at Stanford University, CEO of Matroid, and a founding team member at Databricks. His work focuses on machine learning ...

, computer scientist;

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Art and literature

* Hossein Amanat, architect, urban designer * Reza Baraheni, novelist, poet, critic, and political activist * Ila Firouzabadi, artist and screenwriter * Jian Ghomeshi, member of Moxy Früvous; former host of CBC's ''play''; former host of ''Q'' on CBC Radio 1 * Siamak Hariri, architect * Nazanine Hozar, writer *

Ramin Karimloo Ramin Karimloo (; ; born ) is a Canadian actor, singer, and songwriter known for his work on the West End theatre, West End and Broadway theatre, Broadway theatre. He has played the leading roles in both of the West End's longest running musica ...

, West End performer, playing the lead role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's '' The Phantom of the Opera'' and the sequel '' Love Never Dies'' * Navid Khonsari, video game, film and graphic novel creator, writer, director and producer * Fariborz Lachini, music composer * , painter, photographer and husband of ex- Olympic biathlete Myriam Bédard, convicted and sentenced in June 2007 for stealing paintings from the late painter Ghitta Caiserman * Sanaz Mazinani, photographer and curator * Kaveh Nabatian, musician and filmmaker * Marina Nemat, author * Ghazal Omid, nonfiction political writer, nonfiction children's book writer, speaker, NGO executive * Fariborz Sahba, architect * Bardia Sinaee, poet * Marjan Farsad, Animator, illustrator, singer, and songwriter * Parviz Tanavoli, Sculptor and painter * Sirak Melkonian, Painter * Mostafa Keshvari, Director and writer * Anahita Akhavan, painter

Beauty pageants

* Nazanin Afshin-Jam, Miss Canada 2003, first runner-up of Miss World 2003, actress, singer-songwriter, human rights activist; wife of former Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay * Ramona Amiri, Miss World Canada 2005, semifinalist of Miss World 2005 * Samantha Tajik, Miss Universe Canada 2008

Business

Sea Life Cavern wing at West Edmonton Mall

* Ghermezian family, billionaire shopping mall developers * Hassan Khosrowshahi, founder of Future Shop * Karim Hakimi, founder of Hakim Optical * Michael Latifi, founder of Sofina Foods Ltd and owner of Nidala (BVI) Limited which holds a share in the McLaren Group. * Shahrzad Rafati, founder of BroadbandTV Corp * Sam Mizrahi, real estate developer * Shahin Assayesh, publisher

Crime

* Omid Tahvili, kingpin and international fugitive

Entertainment

* Pirouz Nemati, actor and screenwriter ('' Universal Language'') * Mehdi Sadaghdar, YouTube personality, electrical engineer * Mani Soleymanlou, actor and playwright

Journalism

ITC TV - Persian TV Station in Toronto 2014

Various Persian-language media (including TV and newspapers) are active in Canada, including Shahrvand and Salam Toronto, which cover local events as well. * Maziar Bahari, journalist * Farid Haerinejad, CBC former producer, documentary maker, and editor-in-chief of Radio Zamaneh * Shaya Goldoust, journalist, podcaster, radio host * Zahra Kazemi, photojournalist * Nikahang Kowsar, cartoonist * Touka Neyestani, cartoonist

Politicians

* Ali Ehsassi, Federal Liberal MP for Willowdale, lawyer * Majid Jowhari, Federal Liberal MP for Richmond Hill, engineer * Amir Khadir, Québec solidaire Former MNA for Mercier, microbiologist *

Reza Moridi Reza Moridi (; born ) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Ontario Liberal Party, Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2007 to 2018 who represented the riding of Richmond Hill (provincial electoral district) ...

, Ontario Liberal Former MPP for Richmond Hill, physicist, engineer

Sport

* Nicholas Latifi,

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

driver for Williams Grand Prix Engineering * Khashayar Farzam, Powerlifter and

Physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

Technology

* Behdad Esfahbod, programmer and creator of the HarfBuzz text shaping engine

Notes

References

External links

PM meets with representatives of the Persian-Canadian community

Iranians of Toronto website
{{Iranian citizens abroad