People

Iran

Population:

68,688,433 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:

0-14 years: 26.1% (male 9,204,785/female 8,731,429)
15-64 years: 69% (male 24,133,919/female 23,245,255)
65 years and over: 4.9% (male 1,653,827/female 1,719,218) (2006 est.)

Median age:

total: 24.8 years
male: 24.6 years
female: 25 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:

1.01% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:

17 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:

5.55 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:

-0.48 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:

at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.96 male(s)/female

Ethnic groups:

Persian 51%, Azerbaijani 29%, Gilaki & Mazandarani 8%, Kurd 7%, Arab 3%, Lur 2%, Baloch 2%, Turkmen 2%, other 1%

Language:

Language: Persian & Persian dialects 58%, Turkish & Turkic Dialects 26%, Kurdish 9%, Luri 2%, Baloch 1%, Arabic 1%, Turkish 1%, other 2%

Government

Iran

Country name:

conventional long form: Islamic Republic of Iran
conventional short form: Iran
local short form: Iran
former: Persia
local long form: Jomhuri-ye Eslami-ye Iran

Government type:

theocratic republic

Capital:

Tehran

Administrative divisions:

28 provinces (ostanha, singular - ostan); Ardabil, Azarbayjan-e Gharbi, Azarbayjan-e Sharqi, Bushehr, Chahar Mahall va Bakhtiari, Esfahan, Fars, Gilan, Golestan, Hamadan, Hormozgan, Ilam, Kerman, Kermanshah, Khorasan, Khuzestan, Kohkiluyeh va Buyer Ahmad, Kordestan, Lorestan, Markazi, Mazandaran, Qazvin, Qom, Semnan, Sistan va Baluchestan, Tehran, Yazd, Zanjan

Independence:

1 April 1979 (Islamic Republic of Iran proclaimed)

National holiday:

Republic Day, 1 April (1979)
note: additional holidays celebrated widely in Iran include Revolution Day, 11 February (1979); Noruz (New Year's Day), 21 March

Constitution:

2-3 December 1979; revised 1989 to expand powers of the presidency and eliminate the prime ministership

Legal system:

the Constitution codifies Islamic principles of government

Suffrage:

15 years of age; universal

Executive branch:

chief of state: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hoseini-KHAMENEI (since 4 June 1989)
elections: leader of the Islamic Revolution appointed for life by the Assembly of Experts; president elected by popular vote for a four-year term; election last held� June 2005

cabinet: Council of Ministers selected by the president with legislative approval; the Supreme Leader has some control over appointments to the more sensitive ministries.
Present president : Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, PH.D. (2006)

 Legislative branch:

unicameral Islamic Consultative Assembly or Majles-e-Shura-ye-Eslami (290 seats, note - changed from 270 seats with the 18 February 2000 election; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
elections: last held 2005 with a runoff held 5 May 2000 (next to be held February 2004)

Judicial branch:

Supreme Court

Political parties and leaders:

a loose pro-reform coalition called the 2nd Khordad front achieved considerable success at elections to the sixth Majles in early 2000, and groups in the coalition include: Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF); Executives of Construction Party (Kargozaran); Solidarity Party; Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization (MIRO); and Militant Clerics Society (Ruhaniyun); a new apparently conservative group, the Builders of Islamic Iran, emerged at the local level in early 2003

International organization participation:

CP, ECO, ESCAP, FAO, G-15, G-19, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, NAM, OIC, OPCW, OPEC, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO

Diplomatic representation from the US:

none; note - protecting power in Iran is Switzerland

Flag description:

three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and red; the national emblem (a stylized representation of the word Allah in the shape of a tulip, a symbol of martyrdom) in red is centered in the white band; ALLAH AKBAR (God is Great) in white Arabic script is repeated 11 times along the bottom edge of the green band and 11 times along the top edge of the red band

Economy

Iran

Economy - overview:

Iran's economy is a mixture of central planning, state ownership of oil and other large enterprises, village agriculture, and small-scale private trading and service ventures. President KHATAMI has continued to follow the market reform plans of former President RAFSANJANI and has indicated that he will pursue diversification of Iran's oil-reliant economy although he has made little progress toward that goal. Relatively high oil prices in recent years have enabled Iran to amass some $15 billion in foreign exchange reserves, but have not solved Iran's structural economic problems, including high unemployment and inflation.

GDP:

purchasing power parity

$852.6 billion (2007 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:

4.3% (2007 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity

$12,300 (2007 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:

agriculture: 11%
industry: 45.3%
services: 43.7% (2007 est.)

Population below poverty line:

18% (2007 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:

lowest 10%: 2%
highest 10%: 33.7% (1998)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):

17% (July 2007 est.)

Labor force:

28.7 million
note: shortage of skilled labor (2006 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:

agriculture: 25%
industry: 31%
services: 45% (June 2007)

Unemployment rate:

11% according to the Iranian government (June 2007)

Budget:

revenues: $64 billion
expenditures: $64 billion (2007 est.)

Industries:

petroleum, petrochemicals, textiles, cement and other construction materials, food processing (particularly sugar refining and vegetable oil production), metal fabricating, armaments

Industrial production growth rate:

4.8% excluding oil (2007 est.)

Electricity - production:

136.2 billion kWh (2005)

Electricity - production by source:

fossil fuel:
hydro

other
nuclear

Electricity - consumption:

136.2 billion kWh (2005)

Electricity - exports:

2.761 billion kWh (2005)

Electricity - imports:

2.074 billion kWh (2005)

Oil - production:

4.15 million bbl/day (2006 est.)

Oil - consumption:

1.63 million bbl/day (2006 est.)

Oil - exports:

2.52 million bbl/day (2006 est.)

Oil - imports:

153,600 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - proved reserves:

132.5 billion bbl based on Iranian claims (1 January 2006 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:

101 billion cu m (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:

wheat, rice, other grains, sugar beets, fruits, nuts, cotton; dairy products, wool; caviar

Exports:

$76.5 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.)

Exports - commodities:

petroleum 80%, chemical and petrochemical products, fruits and nuts, carpets

Exports - partners:

Japan 14%, China 12.8%, Turkey 7.2%, Italy 6.3%, South Korea 6%, Netherlands 4.6% (2006)

Imports:

$61.3 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.)

Imports - commodities:

industrial raw materials and intermediate goods, capital goods, foodstuffs and other consumer goods, technical services, military supplies

Imports - partners:

Germany 12.2%, China 10.5%, UAE 9.3%, France 5.6%, Italy 5.4%, South Korea 5.4%, Russia 4.4% (2006)

Debt - external:

$13.8 billion (31 December 2007 est.)

Stock of direct foreign investment - at home:

$4.345 billion (2006 est.)

Currency:

Iranian rial (IRR)

Currency code:

IRR

Exchange rates:

rials per US dollar - 9,038 (2008), 9,407 (2007), 9,227 (2006), 8,964 (2005), 8,614 (2004), 8,193 (2003)
note: Iran has been using a managed floating exchange rate regime since unifying multiple exchange rates in March 2002

Fiscal year:

21 March - 20 March

Communications

Iran

Telephones - main lines in use:

21.981 million (2006)

Telephones - mobile cellular:

13.659 million (2006)

Telephone system:

general assessment: currently being modernized and expanded with the goal of not only improving the efficiency and increasing the volume of the urban service but also bringing telephone service to several thousand villages, not presently connected
domestic: the addition of new fiber cables and modern switching and exchange systems installed by Iran's state-owned telecom company have improved and expanded the main line network greatly; main line availability has more than doubled to 22 million lines since 2000; additionally, mobile service has increased dramatically serving nearly 13.7 million subscribers in 2006
international: country code - 98; submarine fiber-optic cable to UAE with access to Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG); Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) fiber-optic line runs from Azerbaijan through the northern portion of Iran to Turkmenistan with expansion to Georgia and Azerbaijan; HF radio and microwave radio relay to Turkey, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Syria, Kuwait, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; satellite earth stations - 9 Intelsat and 4 Inmarsat (2006)

Radio broadcast stations:

AM 72, FM 5, shortwave 5 (1998)

Television broadcast stations:

28 (plus 450 repeaters) (1997)

Internet country code:

.ir

Internet hosts:

6,111 (2007)

Internet users:

18 million (2006)

Transportation

Iran

Railways:

total: 8,367 km
broad gauge: 94 km 1.676-m gauge
standard gauge: 8,273 km 1.435-m gauge (146 km electrified) (2006)

Highways:

total: 140,200 km
paved: 49,440 km (including 470 km of expressways)

Waterways:

904 km
note: the Shatt al Arab is usually navigable by maritime traffic for about 130 km; channel has been dredged to 3 m and is in use

Pipelines:

condensate 7 km; condensate/gas 397 km; gas 19,161 km; liquid petroleum gas 570 km; oil 8,438 km; refined products 7,936 km (2007)

Ports and harbors:

Abadan (largely destroyed in fighting during 1980-88 war), Ahvaz, Bandar 'Abbas, Bandar-e Anzali, Bushehr, Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni, Bandar-e Lengeh, Bandar-e Mahshahr, Bandar-e Torkaman, Chabahar (Bandar Beheshti), Jazireh-ye Khark, Jazireh-ye Lavan, Jazireh-ye Sirri, Khorramshahr (limited operation since November 1992), Now Shahr

Merchant marine:

total: 131 ships (1000 GRT or over) 4,721,202 GRT/8,309,580 DWT
by type: bulk carrier 35, cargo 45, chemical tanker 4, container 9, liquefied gas 1, passenger/cargo 4, petroleum tanker 29, roll on/roll off 4
foreign-owned: 1 (UAE 1)
registered in other countries: 33 (Bolivia 1, Cyprus 2, Malta 24, Panama 4, St Kitts and Nevis 1, St Vincent and The Grenadines 1) (2007)

Airports:

331 (2007)

Airports - with paved runways:

total: 129
over 3,047 m: 40
2,438 to 3,047 m: 28
1,524 to 2,437 m: 24

914 to 1,523 m: 32
under 914 m: 5 (2007)

Airports - with unpaved runways:

total: 202
over 3,047 m: 1
1,524 to 2,437 m: 10
914 to 1,523 m: 145
under 914 m: 46 (2007)

Heliports:

14 (2007)

Military

Iran

Military branches:

Islamic Republic of Iran Regular Forces (Artesh): Ground Forces, Navy, Air Force of the Military of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Niru-ye Hava'i-ye Artesh-e Jomhuri-ye Eslami-ye Iran; includes air defense); Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Sepah-e Pasdaran-e Enqelab-e Eslami, IRGC): Ground Forces, Navy, Air Force, Qods Force (special operations), and Basij Force (Popular Mobilization Army); Law Enforcement Forces (2007)

Military service age and obligation:

18 years of age for male compulsory military service; 16 years of age for volunteers; soldiers as young as 9 were recruited extensively during the Iran-Iraq War; conscript service obligation - 18 months (2004)

Military manpower - availability:

males age 15-49: 20,343,063 (2003 est.)

Military manpower - fit for military service:

males age 15-49: 12,094,551 (2003 est.)

Military manpower - reaching military age annually:

males age 18-49: 862,056� (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:

2.5% (2006)