Tehran Province (Persian:استان تهران)[a] is one of the31 provinces ofIran. Its capital is the city ofTehran, the national capital of Iran.[7]
Tehran Province covers an area of 18,814 square kilometres (7,264 sq mi) and is located to the north of theCentral 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 5regions, solely for coordination and development purposes on June 22, 2014.[1]
Tehran Province is situated in north-central Iran, lying on the southern slopes of theAlborz Mountains. The province’s location within the Alborz range gives it a diverse topography, with high mountains in the north and gradually descending plains toward the south. This geographical setting creates a varied climate, from cool alpine conditions to semi-arid lowlands.[8]
The province of Tehran has over 12 million inhabitants and is Iran's mostdensely populated region. Approximately 86.5 percent reside in urban areas and 13.5 percent in rural areas of the province.[9]
Tehran province has severalarcheological sites indicating settlements dating back several thousand years. Until 300 years ago,Rey was the most prominent of the cities of the province. However, thecity 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 theCultural Heritage Organization of Iran. The oldest of these in Tehran Province is the remains of two sites inFiruzkuh County that date back to the fourth millennium BCE.
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 theAzeri andPersian languages.[13][14][15][16][17]
ManyKurds have migrated to Tehran province in recent years to continue theirstudies or to findjobs. Also, the people ofSarbandan,Jaban,Sorkheh Deh andKhosrovan districts ofDamavand county in the east of Tehran province speakKurmanji Kurdish language. The people of these areas are Kurmanji Kurds who moved to this area fromKhorasan during theQajar period. Simultaneously with the migration of Kurmanji tribes from Khorasan to Damavand, another group of Kurds from Khorasan migrated fromChenaran toPiranshahr, one of the cities of Kurdistan south ofLake Urmia.[20][21][22][23]
ManyLurs 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 ofKarim Khan Zand.[24][25][26]
A population ofIraqi nationals who are of Iranian origin that live inDolat Abad area of Tehran.
The unstable situation and the war in neighbouringAfghanistan andIraq 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 mostlyDari-speakingTajik,Parsiwans andHazara, speaking a variety of Persian, and Iraqi refugees are mainlyMesopotamian Arabic-speakers who are often of Iranian andPersian ethnic heritage.[31][32][33][34][35]
At the time of the 2006 National Census, the province's population was 13,281,858 in 3,729,010 households.[36] The following census in 2011 counted 12,183,391 people in 3,731,480 households.[37] The 2016 census measured the population of the province as 13,267,637 in 4,288,563 households.[5]
The population history and structural changes of Tehran province's administrative divisions over three consecutive censuses are shown in the following table.
Tehran province is the richest in Iran, as it contributes approximately 29% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). Furthermore, it houses approximately 18% of the country's population and is the mostindustrialized province in Iran, with nearly 94% of its residents living in the cities as of 2016.
Mountain ranges such as TheAlborz span the north; Savad Kooh and Firooz Kooh are located in the northeast; Lavasanat, Qarah Daq, Shemiranat, Hassan Abad and Namak Mountains are in the southern areas; Bibi Shahr Banoo and Alqadr are situated in the southeast and the heights of Qasr-e-Firoozeh been located to the east of the province.
Environmentally, the climate of Tehran province is stable and has four seasons, in winter its experiences cold and snowy conditions, in spring and autumn it experiences generally mild conditions with ample rain, and in summer it experiences warm to hot conditions, and is generally dry. In the mountains, however, it is cold and semi-humid all year round, and the higher regions are colder with long winters. The hottest months of the year are from mid-July to mid-September when temperatures range from 28 °C (82 °F) to 30 °C (86 °F) and the coldest months experience 1 °C (34 °F) around January–February, but at certain times in winter it can reach −20 °C (−4 °F). Tehran city has cold winters and warm to hot summers. Average annual rainfall is approximately 200 millimetres (7.9 in), the maximum being during the winter season mostly in the form of snow. On the whole, the province has acold semi-arid,steppe climate in the south and analpine climate in the north.
Tehran is the commercial heart of Iran. Tehran Province has over 17,000 industrial units employing 390,000 people, 26% of all units inIran. The province contains 30% of Iran's economy, and comprises 40% of Iran's consumer market. The province has three hydro dams namely Latiyan, Lar, and Amir Kabir as well as two natural lakes, providing the water supply of Tehran and the province.[citation needed]
The province contains 170 mines, over 330 square kilometres of forests, and over 12800 square kilometres of pasture.[citation needed]
Generally speaking, year round, regions such as the southern slopes of the Alborz Mountains, especially in the mountains, valleys, and rivers and artificial lakes formed behind the great dams of Amir Kabir, Latiyan and Lar along with natural lakes of Jaban and Tarr provide considerable recreation for the province.
Moreover, due to excessive snowfall in the northern areas of the province during the winter season, theAlborz mountains form an excellent environment for winter sports such as skiing.Dizin,Shemshak, andTochal are the most popular skiing resorts.
Tehran Province is the most populous province of Iran.[44][45] The population density in this province is 969 people per square kilometer.[46] 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 andTalish) 30.3%,Kurdish 5.5%,Lurs 2.8%,Baloch 2.1%.[47][48][49][50][51][11][52]
Freeways (in blue) and main roads (in green) in Tehran province
Tehran province is served by a large freeway and expressway network:
Freeway 2 (Tehran–Karaj Freeway): This freeway connects Tehran to the capital city of neighboring province ofAlborz,Karaj and continues towardsTabriz andEurope.
Road 71 (Qom old Road): This road is the road that connected Tehran to Qom as a main road before the opening ofthe freeway in 1980. It is still an important transit road because trucks are not allowed in the freeway.
The city of Tehran is connected to the North, South, West and East with the railway. It has weekly trains forIstanbul. Tehran is the headquarters ofRAJA (Iran national railway). There may be plans to build high speed railway lines from Tehran to Mashhad andIsfahan.
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.
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^شماره کتابشناسه ملّی:۲۸۸۷۱۴۱طرح بررسی و سنجش شاخصهای فرهنگ عمومی کشور (شاخصهای غیرثبتی){گزارش}:استان تهران/به سفارش شورای فرهنگ عمومی کشور؛ مدیر طرح و مسئول سیاست گذاری:منصور واعظی؛ اجرا:شرکت پژوهشگران خبره پارس -شابک:۷-۴۲-۶۶۲۷-۶۰۰-۹۷۸ *وضعیت نشر:تهران-موسسه انتشارات کتاب نشر ۱۳۹۱ *وضعیت ظاهری:۲۹۶ ص:جدول (بخش رنگی)، نمودار (بخش رنگی) [The project of surveying and measuring the country's public culture indicators] (in Persian). Tehran.
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