Ardabil province () is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Ardabil. The province is in the northwest of the country, in Region 3, bordering the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the Iranian provinces of East Azerbaijan, Zanjan, and Gilan. Spanning an area of 18,011 km<sup>2</sup>, and established in 1993, Ardabil was carved out of the eastern part of East Azerbaijan province.
History
thumb|upright|Sheikh Safi's Tomb
The natural features of the province of Ardabil are mentioned in the Avesta, according to which Zoroaster was born by the river Aras and wrote his book in the Sabalan Mountains. During the Muslim conquest of Iran, Ardabil was the largest city in Azarbaijan, and remained so until the Mongol invasion period.
Shah Ismail I started his campaign to nationalize Iran's government and land from here, but consequently announced Tabriz as his capital in 1500 CE. Yet Ardabil remained an important city both politically and economically until modern times.
Demographics
Language
The primary language of Ardabil province is Azerbaijani, a Turkic language, which is spoken by a majority in every county.
Other languages in Ardabil include Tati (in Khalkhal county) and Talysh (in Namin county). Furthermore, there is a group of Kurmanji-speaking Kurds around the city of Khalkhal known as Gormanj. Persian is known by almost everyone in the province as it is the official language of the country, although very few speak it as their mother tongue.
Population
At the time of the 2006 National Census, the province's population was 1,209,968 in 281,433 households. The following census in 2011 counted 1,248,488 people in 337,943 households. The 2016 census measured the population of the province as 1,270,420 inhabitants in 377,423 households.
Administrative divisions
320px
The population history and structural changes of Ardabil province's administrative divisions over three consecutive censuses are shown in the following table.
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Ardabil Province
|-
! Counties !! 2006 || style="text-align: right;" | — || style="text-align: right;" | — || style="text-align: right;" | —
|-
| Bileh Savar || style="text-align: right;" | 54,471 || style="text-align: right;" | 53,768 || style="text-align: right;" | 51,404
|-
| Germi || style="text-align: right;" | 89,248 || style="text-align: right;" | 84,267 || style="text-align: right;" | 76,901
|-
| Khalkhal || style="text-align: right;" | 92,315 || style="text-align: right;" | 92,332 || style="text-align: right;" | 86,731
|-
| Kowsar || style="text-align: right;" | 27,472 || style="text-align: right;" | 26,198 || style="text-align: right;" | 22,127
|-
| Meshgin Shahr || style="text-align: right;" | 156,141 || style="text-align: right;" | 151,156 || style="text-align: right;" | 149,941
|-
| Namin || style="text-align: right;" | 59,242 || style="text-align: right;" | 61,333 || style="text-align: right;" | 60,659
|-
| Nir || style="text-align: right;" | 23,573 || style="text-align: right;" | 23,656 || style="text-align: right;" | 20,864
|-
| Parsabad || style="text-align: right;" | 164,576 || style="text-align: right;" | 173,182 || style="text-align: right;" | 177,601
|-
| Sareyn|| style="text-align: right;" | — || style="text-align: right;" | 18,231 || style="text-align: right;" | 18,200
|-
| Ungut || style="text-align: right;" | — || style="text-align: right;" | — || style="text-align: right;" | —
|-
| Total || style="text-align: right;" | 1,209,968 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,248,488 || style="text-align: right;" | 1,270,420
|}
Cities
According to the 2016 census, 866,034 people (over 68% of the population of Ardabil province) live in the following cities: