Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
People
When Iranians meet they inevitably ask: 'Where are you from?' This is because Iran has a
multiplicity of distinct ethnic identities who are all, nevertheless, Iranian. It is important to
understand that though the indigenous ethnicities are very much part of life, there is a uni-
fying Iranian identity that keeps all these separate peoples part of a bigger whole.
Iran's population has more than doubled since
the 1979 revolution, as contraception was out-
lawed and large families encouraged. This
policy was hastily reversed when the economic
implications became clear and between 1990
and 2010 population growth fell from 3.9% to
1.6% thanks largely to government efforts.
However, in 2010 the Ahmadinejad government labelled contraception an unwanted
Western import and announced an end to the internationally lauded population-manage-
ment scheme. Instead, population growth would be boosted by cash deposits for each new
child. Given many of those born in the 1980s are now having children of their own, the es-
timated population of 78 million could rise rapidly.
The rapid urbanisation of Iranian society star-
ted well before 1979, but was intensified by the
Iran-Iraq War. Now more than 70% of the pop-
ulation is estimated to live in cities and large
towns. Traditional rural life still exists, but as in
any other developing country, the pull of the big
city is leaving rural villages populated largely by the old. Iran hosts the world's second-
largest community of long-stay refugees, with more than one million Afghans and 46,000
Iraqis registered as refugees with Iran's Bureau of Aliens and Foreign Immigrant Affairs.
Despite high unemployment, Afghan refugees are critical to the Iranian economy, perform-
ing much of the low-paid manual labour that Iranians don't like to do, but the Afghanis are
excluded from services such as schools.
The following are brief summaries of the main ethnic groups you'll find in Iran. For
more detailed descriptions, follow the cross-references to the relevant chapters.
Almost 70% of the population is aged under 30
years old and about one-third under 15, making un-
employment and underemployment serious issues
in Iran.
More than 97% of all children are enrolled in
schools, with almost as many girls as boys.
