Iran in brief: about 92 million people, an area of 1,648,195 km², 30 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and Persian (Farsi) as the official language. Below are 50 facts about Iran’s people, history, nature and everyday culture, with the Persian word where it helps.
1. The earliest archaeological finds in Iran date back to the Paleolithic era, and by 5000 BC the region had farming villages and early towns. The prehistoric sites of the Khorramabad Valley became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2025.
2. Around 550 BC, Cyrus the Great overthrew the Medes and founded the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire, which at its height stretched from the Indus to the Nile.
3. The name Iran (ایران) comes from an old word meaning “land of the Aryans”.
4. Iran’s official name is the Islamic Republic of Iran, adopted after the revolution of 11 February 1979 ended the Pahlavi monarchy. In the West the country was called Persia until 1935, when Reza Shah asked foreign governments to use Iran.
5. Persian (Farsi, فارسی) is the official language of Iran, used in schools, government and business. Azeri, Kurdish, Luri, Arabic, Baluchi, Armenian and other languages are also spoken in the country.
6. Varieties of Persian are official in Afghanistan, where it is called Dari, and in Tajikistan, where it is called Tajik. For centuries Persian was also the court language of Mughal India.
7. Iran covers 1,648,195 km² (about 636,000 square miles), making it the 17th-largest country in the world, a little smaller than Alaska.
8. Iran is divided into 31 provinces (استان, ostân), which are divided into counties and districts.
9. Iran uses a solar calendar. The year begins with Nowruz (نوروز), the Persian New Year, on the spring equinox around 20 or 21 March. Nowruz is on UNESCO’s list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
10. The Cyrus Cylinder, written after Cyrus the Great took Babylon in 539 BC, is often described as an early charter of human rights. A replica is on display at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
11. Iran has about 92 million people (2025 estimate), which puts it among the 20 most populous countries in the world.
12. Islam, mainly Shia Islam, is the main religion of Iran. The country also has long-established Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian (mostly Armenian and Assyrian) communities, as well as a Bahá’í community.
13. The capital of Iran is Tehran (تهران), the country’s largest city. More than 8.7 million people lived in the city at the 2016 census, and many more live in the wider metropolitan area.
14. Mount Damavand (دماوند) in the Alborz mountains rises to about 5,610 m (18,400 ft). It is the highest peak in Iran and the highest volcano in Asia. Two great deserts, the Dasht-e Kavir and the Dasht-e Lut, cover much of the central plateau.
15. Iran has 30 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including Persepolis, Pasargadae, Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan, the Lut Desert and, since 2026, Alamut Castle.
16. Iran has the world’s second-largest proven reserves of natural gas, after Russia, and about 209 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the third largest in the world.
17. Iran has land borders with seven countries: Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Across the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf it also faces Russia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
18. Persians are the largest ethnic group in Iran, at about 61% of the population. Azeris, Kurds, Lurs, Arabs, Baluch and Turkmen are among the other groups.
19. Roxana, the wife of Alexander the Great, came from Bactria, an eastern Iranian land. Her name in Persian is Roshanak (روشنک), meaning “little light”.
20. On 5 August 1906, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah signed the decree that created Iran’s first parliament, the Majles, and the country’s first constitution was signed at the end of that year.
21. Several people from the Bible are traditionally linked with tombs in Iran: the prophet Daniel at Susa, Esther and Mordecai in Hamadan, Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae and Darius the Great at Naqsh-e Rostam.
22. Iran’s birth rate has fallen sharply. It is now about 12 births per 1,000 people a year (UN estimate for 2025).
23. Family is at the heart of Iranian society, and loyalty to the family often comes before other relationships, even business.
24. Iran grows more than 90% of the world’s saffron (زعفران, za’farân), most of it in the province of Khorasan in the northeast.
25. Persepolis (تخت جمشید, Takht-e Jamshid), the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire, was begun by Darius the Great around 518 BC and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.
26. Iranians give gifts on many occasions, for example when they return from a trip or when someone has a major success in their personal or working life.
27. If you are invited to an Iranian home, bring flowers or pastries for your hosts. When you give a gift, it is polite to apologize for how small it is.
28. If you are invited to an Iranian home, check whether your host is wearing shoes. If not, take yours off at the door.
29. Private satellite dishes are officially banned in Iran, yet they can be seen on rooftops in every city.
30. Iran is famous for luxury foods such as Caspian caviar, and it is one of the world’s two biggest producers of pistachios (پسته, peste), together with the United States.
31. The current Iranian flag was adopted in 1980. It has three equal horizontal bands of green, white and red, with the national emblem in the center and the phrase “God is great” written 22 times along the edges of the bands.
32. Much of Iran is dry, especially the central plateau, while the Caspian coast in the north is green and wet. Its ancient Hyrcanian forests are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
33. Iran first took part in the Olympic Games in 1948 and has sent athletes to every Summer Games since then except 1980 and 1984. It has also competed in the Winter Olympics since 1956.
34. Shiraz is the city of the poets Hafez and Saadi. Many Iranian families keep a copy of Hafez’s Divan at home and open it at random for fâl (فال), a kind of fortune-telling, especially on Yalda night.
35. Iran is a young country: about four in ten Iranians are under 30.
36. Many young Iranians live with their parents until they marry, and adult children usually stay close to the family home.
37. Ta’ârof (تعارف) is the Persian art of politeness: hosts insist, guests refuse at first, and a shopkeeper may even say “it’s not worth anything” (قابل نداره, ghâbel nadâre) before you pay.
38. Since ancient times, people in Iran have used a water system called a qanat (قنات). It collects underground water and carries it through gently sloping tunnels to towns and fields. The Persian Qanat is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
39. In Iran, women are legally required to wear the hijab in public.
40. The Persian cat is one of the oldest cat breeds in the world and is named after Persia. Its long, silky coat is said to have protected it from the cold of the Iranian plateau.
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41. Poetry holds a special place in Iranian culture. Many Iranians can recite lines by Hafez, Saadi, Rumi and Ferdowsi, whose Shahnameh (شاهنامه, the Book of Kings) is Iran’s national epic.
42. Satellites measured a ground temperature of 70.7°C (159°F) in Iran’s Lut Desert, one of the highest surface temperatures ever recorded on Earth.
43. In December 2003, an earthquake struck the southeastern city of Bam, killing tens of thousands of people and destroying much of its ancient citadel, the Arg-e Bam.
44. Most men wear Western-style clothes, although traditional robes and turbans or hats are still worn in some regions, especially by clerics.
45. Iran has four seasons. Spring and fall are mild, winters bring heavy snow to the mountains, and summer temperatures often reach 38°C (100°F) or more.
46. Oil and gas exports have long been the largest source of the Iranian government’s revenue.
47. The currency of Iran is the rial, but Iranians usually state prices in tomans: 1 toman is 10 rials.
48. Iran is home to one of the world’s oldest civilizations. Susa (شوش, Shush), once the capital of Elam, was first settled more than 6,000 years ago.
49. The war between Iran and Iraq, from September 1980 to August 1988, was the longest conventional war of the 20th century.
50. The Karun is the only navigable river in Iran, and boats can use it only for short distances.
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