Tehran province

Tehran province () is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Tehran, the national capital of Iran.

Tehran Province covers an area of and is located to the north of the Central Plateau of Iran. It was made a part of the First Region with its secretariat located in Tehran, upon the division of the provinces into 5 regions, solely for coordination and development purposes on June 22, 2014.

The province of Tehran has over 12 million inhabitants and is Iran's most densely populated region. Approximately 86.5 percent reside in urban areas and 13.5 percent in rural areas of the province.

History

150px|thumb|left|The [[Achaemenid collection of the National Museum of Iran in Tehran]]

Tehran province has several archeological sites indicating settlements dating back several thousand years. Until 300 years ago, Rey was the most prominent of the cities of the province. However, the city of Tehran rose to become the largest city and capital of Iran by 1796, and since then has been the political, cultural, economic, and commercial nucleus of Iran.

Tehran has over 1,500 historical sites of cultural significance registered with the Cultural Heritage Organization of Iran. The oldest of these in Tehran Province is the remains of two sites in Firuzkuh County that date back to the fourth millennium BCE.

After the 2006 census, Karaj, Nazarabad, and Savojbolagh Counties were separated from the province in the establishment of Alborz province.

Demographics

Ethnicity

Persians

The majority of people living in Tehran province are ethnically Persian, and Tehran is the largest Persian-speaking city in the world.

Azerbaijanis

Azerbaijanis are one of the Iranian ethnic groups living in Tehran province, who also form the largest group of immigrants in Tehran province. Azeris in Tehran speak the Azeri and Persian languages.

Mazanderanis

Mazanderanis are the third largest tribe of Tehran province, who mostly migrated to Tehran from the cities of Babol, Sari, Amol, Qaem Shahr and Savadkuh. In addition to Tehran city, Mazanderani language is also spoken in Firuzkuh, Damavand and Shemiranat cities.

Kurds

Many Kurds have migrated to Tehran province in recent years to continue their studies or to find jobs. Also, the people of Sarbandan, Jaban, Sorkheh Deh and Khosrovan districts of Damavand county in the east of Tehran province speak Kurmanji Kurdish language. The people of these areas are Kurmanji Kurds who moved to this area from Khorasan during the Qajar period. Simultaneously with the migration of Kurmanji tribes from Khorasan to Damavand, another group of Kurds from Khorasan migrated from Chenaran to Piranshahr, one of the cities of Kurdistan south of Lake Urmia.

Lurs

Many Lurs migrate to Tehran province every year, and in this way, Tehran has a minority of Lurs. Also, Hadavand clan is one of the oldest and largest clans of Tehran province, which moved to Tehran province during the time of Karim Khan Zand.

Gilaks

A population of Gilaks also live in Tehran and speak the Gilaki and Persian languages.

Armenians

A population of Armenians mainly lives in the eastern areas of Tehran.

Citizens of other countries

A population of Iraqi nationals who are of Iranian origin that live in Dolat Abad area of Tehran.

The unstable situation and the war in neighbouring Afghanistan and Iraq prompted a rush of refugees into the country who arrived in their millions, with Tehran being a magnet for much seeking work, who subsequently helped the city to recover from war wounds, working for far less pay than local construction workers. Many of these refugees are being repatriated with the assistance of the UNHCR, but there are still sizable groups of Afghan and Iraqi refugees in Tehran who are reluctant to leave, being pessimistic about the situation in their own countries. Afghan refugees are mostly Dari-speaking Tajik, Parsiwans and Hazara, speaking a variety of Persian, and Iraqi refugees are mainly Mesopotamian Arabic-speakers who are often of Iranian and Persian ethnic heritage.

Population

At the time of the 2006 National Census, the province's population was 13,281,858 in 3,729,010 households. The following census in 2011 counted 12,183,391 people in 3,731,480 households. The 2016 census measured the population of the province as 13,267,637 in 4,288,563 households.

Administrative divisions

360px

The population history and structural changes of Tehran province's administrative divisions over three consecutive censuses are shown in the following table.

{| class="wikitable"

|+ Tehran Province

! Counties !! 2006 || style="text-align: right;" | — || style="text-align: right;" | 523,636 || style="text-align: right;" | 536,329

| Damavand || style="text-align: right;" | 96,860 || style="text-align: right;" | 100,690 || style="text-align: right;" | 125,480

| Eslamshahr || style="text-align: right;" | 447,192 || style="text-align: right;" | 485,688 || style="text-align: right;" | 548,620

| Firuzkuh || style="text-align: right;" | 37,416 || style="text-align: right;" | 38,712 || style="text-align: right;" | 33,558

| Karaj || style="text-align: right;" | — || style="text-align: right;" | 373,994 || style="text-align: right;" | 377,292

| Nazarabad || style="text-align: right;" | 128,666 || style="text-align: right;" | — || style="text-align: right;" | —

| Pakdasht || style="text-align: right;" | 240,841 || style="text-align: right;" | 291,397 || style="text-align: right;" | 350,966

| Pardis || style="text-align: right;" | — || style="text-align: right;" | — || style="text-align: right;" | 169,060

| Pishva || style="text-align: right;" | — || style="text-align: right;" | 75,454 || style="text-align: right;" | 86,601

| Qarchak || style="text-align: right;" | — || style="text-align: right;" | — || style="text-align: right;" | 269,138

| Qods || style="text-align: right;" | — || style="text-align: right;" | 290,663 || style="text-align: right;" | 316,636

| Ray || style="text-align: right;" | 292,016 || style="text-align: right;" | 319,305 || style="text-align: right;" | 349,700

| Robat Karim || style="text-align: right;" | 608,530 || style="text-align: right;" | 195,917 || style="text-align: right;" | 291,516

| Savojbolagh || style="text-align: right;" | 215,086 || style="text-align: right;" | — || style="text-align: right;" | —

| Shahriar || style="text-align: right;" | 1,044,707 || style="text-align: right;" | 624,440 || style="text-align: right;" | 744,210

| Shemiranat || style="text-align: right;" | 37,778 || style="text-align: right;" | 44,061 || style="text-align: right;" | 47,279

| Tehran || style="text-align: right;" | 7,882,843 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,293,140 || style="text-align: right;" | 8,737,510

| Varamin || style="text-align: right;" | 540,442 || style="text-align: right;" | 526,294 || style="text-align: right;" | 283,742

| Total || style="text-align: right;"| 13,281,858 || style="text-align: right;"| 12,183,391 || style="text-align: right;"| 13,267,637

Cities

According to the 2016 census, 12,452,230 people (nearly 94% of the population of Tehran province) live in the following cities: The population density in this province is 969 people per square kilometer. During a research that was commissioned by the General Culture Council in 2009 and based on a field survey and a statistical community among the residents of 288 cities and about 1400 villages across the country, the percentage of ethnic groups that were sampled in this survey in this province was as follows. Persians was 56.9%, Azari 56.9%, Northern (Mazani, Gilak and Talish) 30.3%, Kurdish 5.5%, Lurs 2.8%, Baloch 2.1%.

Transportation

Road transport

thumb|right|Freeways (in blue) and main roads (in green) in Tehran province

Tehran province is served by a large freeway and expressway network:

43px Freeway 2 (Tehran–Karaj Freeway): This freeway connects Tehran to the capital city of neighboring province of Alborz, Karaj and continues towards Tabriz and Europe.
43px Freeway 5 (Tehran–Saveh Freeway): This Freeway connects city of Tehran to its southern suburbs such as Sabashahr, Robat Karim and Parand and continues towards Markazi province to Saveh and Salafchegan. There are plans to continue the freeway towards Khuzestan.
43px Freeway 7 (Tehran–Qom Freeway/Khalij-e-Fars (Persian Gulf) Freeway): This Freeway connects Tehran City to its airport, Imam Khomeini International Airport and continues towards Qom and Isfahan.
43px Tehran–Pardis Freeway: This freeway connects Tehran City to its northeastern suburbs such as Pardis, Bumehen and Rudehen and joins Haraz Road and Firuzkuh Road.
30px43px Tehran–Shomal Freeway: This under construction freeway will connect Tehran to Chalus and the touristic areas in Shomal.
18px Makhsus Road: This road is the old road from Tehran to Karaj. Because trucks are not allowed on the freeway this road has a high congestion of trucks.
18px Road 38: This road connects Tehran to Shahriar and Malard in southwestern Tehran and continues towards Buin-Zahra in Qazvin province.
18px Road 44: This Expressway connects Tehran to Mashhad.
18px Road 65 (Saidi Expressway/Saveh Road): This road connects Tehran to its southern suburbs such as Chahardangeh, Eslamshahr and Golestan. It continues towards Saveh and further south towards Isfahan, Abadeh, Shiraz and finally the Persian Gulf coastal industrial city of Asaluyeh.
18px Road 71 (Qom old Road): This road is the road that connected Tehran to Qom as a main road before the opening of the freeway in 1980. It is still an important transit road because trucks are not allowed in the freeway.
18px (Damavand Road/Haraz Road): This road connects Tehran to cities like Rudehen, Abali and Damavand and continues towards Amol in Mazandaran province in Shomal. It is the most congested road from Tehran to Shomal after Chalous Road.
18px Road 79 (Firuzkuh Road): This road connects Tehran to Firuzkuh and Qaemshahr and therefore Sari.
Greater Tehran Expressway Network:

Rail network

National Rail Network

The city of Tehran is connected to the North, South, West and East with the railway. It has weekly trains for Istanbul. Tehran is the headquarters of RAJA (Iran national railway). There may be plans to build high speed railway lines from Tehran to Mashhad and Isfahan.

Tehran Metro

thumb|260px|Hassan Abad Sq. Metro station

Tehran is served by a system of metro of three urban lines (1, 2, 4) and one suburban line (5) serving Karaj and Tehran western suburbs. There are plans to extend the system to eight urban lines and express express suburban lines.

Airports

Tehran province has two main passenger airports:

Mehrabad Airport
Imam Khomeini Airport

It also has a number of air force bases.

Parks, recreation and other attractions

thumb|250px|A view of [[Tehran and Alborz Mountains]]

thumb|right|250px|The Niavaran Public Library is nestled snugly within the [[Niavaran city park.]]

thumb|Seen from the [[Dizin|Dizin ski resort.]]

thumb|Milad tower

Darband (hiking trail)
Chitgar Park
Mellat Park
Laleh Park
Jamshidieh Park
Niavaran Park
Sa'ei Park
Shatranj Park
Tangeh Savashi
Police Park
Darabad hiking trail
Darakeh hiking trail
Jahan-e Kudak Park
Azadi Sports complex
Enghelab Sports Complex and Golf course
Eram Amusement Park
Several caves, springs, and waterfalls outside Tehran
Latyan Lake
Lavizan Forest Park
Vard-Avard Forest Park
Khojir National Park
Kavir National Park
Tar Lake
Amir Kabir Lake
Lar Protected Natural Habitat
Varjeen Protected Natural Habitat

Religious centers

Mosques, shrines, mausoleums, and tombs

Soltani Mosque, built by Fath Ali Shah
Atiq Mosque, built in 1663.
Mo'ezz o-dowleh mosque, built by Fath Ali Shah
Haj Seyd Azizollah mosque, built by Fath Ali Shah
Al-javad mosque, Iran's first modernist design mosque.
The Old Sepahsalar mosque, another prominent Qajar era mosque.
The new Sepahsalar Mosque (Madreseh e Motahari)
Filsuf o-dowleh Mosque, Qajar era
Moshir ol-Saltaneh Mosque, Qajar era
Mo'ayyer ol-Mamalik Mosque, Qajar era
Shahr Banu Mausopleum
Javan-mard Qassab Mausoleum, a pre-Islamic semi-mythical hero
Dozens of Imam-zadeh shrines, hundreds of years old, including that of Imam Zadeh Saleh.
Dozens of Saqa Khanehs: traditional places of prayer
Several Tekyehs: traditional places for mourning Muharram ceremonies for Husayn ibn Ali.
Ebn-e Babooyeh cemetery, where numerous Iranian figures, such as Takhti and Ali Akbar Dehkhoda, are buried.
Zahir o-dowleh cemetery, housing the tombs of art and cultural figures such as Iraj Mirza, Mohammad Taghi Bahar, Forough Farrokhzad, Abolhasan Saba, Ruhollah Khaleghi, and Darvish-khan are buried.
Kordan Tomb, Seljuqi era, Karaj.
Maydanak Tomb, 13th century, Karaj
The Polish cemetery north of Tehran, where numerous Western Allied soldiers of World War II are buried

Churches

Surep Georg Church, 1790
Thaddeus Bartoqimus Church, 1808
Enjili Church, 1867
Assyrian Church

Higher education

thumb|300px|[[Sharif University of Technology main campus]]

Tehran province's major universities are:

Shariaty Technical College
Allameh Tabatabaii University
Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic)
Alzahra University
Shamsipour Technical College
Baqiyatallah Medical Sciences University
Farabi Institute of Virtual Higher Education
Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST)
Imam Hossein University
Imam Sadeq University (ISU)
Iran University of Medical Sciences
K.N.Toosi University of Technology
Shahed University
Shahid Beheshti University
Sharif University of Technology
Tarbiat Modarres University (Professor Training University)
Tehran University of Medical Sciences
Tarbiat Moaalem University
University of The Arts
University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences
University of Tehran
Islamic Azad University of Tehran-Science and Research
Islamic Azad University of Pishva
Islamic Azad University of Islamshahr
Islamic Azad University of Damavand
Islamic Azad University of Roodehen
Islamic Azad University of Tehran-Medical Sciences
Islamic Azad University North Tehran Branch
Islamic Azad University of Tehran-South
Islamic Azad University Central Tehran Branch
Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences
Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics (IPM)
Hadith College of Tehran
Imam Ali University for Army Officers
Comprehensive University of Technology
Tehran University of Applied Science and Technology
Bagher Aloloum University
Iran College of Tele-communications
Medical University for the Islamic Republic of Iran's Army
NAJA University of Police
School of Economic Affairs (SEA)
School of International Relations
Shahed University of Medical Sciences
Shahid Sattari University of Aeronautical Engineering
University of Islamic Sects
The Research Institute of The Petroleum Industry
Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute
Power and Water Institute of Technology (PWIT)
Payame Noor University