Counties of Iran

Iran's counties (Persian: شهر, ستان, romanized as šahrestân) are administrative divisions of larger provinces (ostan). The word shahrestan comes from the Persian words شهر shahr (city) and ستان stân ("place, land"). "County", therefore, is a near equivalent to شهرستان (šahrestân).

Counties are divided into one or more districts (baxš بخش). A typical district includes both cities (šahr شهر) and rural districts (dehestân دهستان), which are groupings of adjacent villages. One city within the county serves as the capital of that county, generally in its Central District.

Each county is governed by an office known as farmândâri, which coordinates different public events and agencies and is headed by a farmândâr, the governor of the county and the highest-ranking official in the division.

Among the provinces of Iran, Fars has the highest number of shahrestans (37), while Qom has the fewest (3). In 2005 Iran had 324 shahrestans, while in as of now there are 483.

The total population of a province is the total of its counties.

The total population of a county is the total of its districts.

The total population of a district is the total of its cities and rural districts.

To better understand these subdivisions, the following table for Piranshahr County in West Azerbaijan province (as it existed in 2006, 2011 and 2016) is an example showing the hierarchy of a county's divisions: