Editing Tehran (section)

== Demographics ==
{{See also|Demographics of Tehran}}
{{Further|Ethnicities in Iran}}
[[File:Tehran Population (1956-2016).png|thumb|right|Population of Tehran]]
[[File:Tehran population pyramid in 2016.svg|thumb|[[Tehran province]] population pyramid in 2016]]
===Population===
{{Historical populations
| title = Tehran's Population History
| percentages = pagr
| 1554| 1,000
| 1626| 3,000
| 1797| 15,000
| 1807| 50,000
| 1812| 60,000
| 1834| 80,000
| 1867| 147,256
| 1930| 250,000
| 1940| 540,087
| 1956| 1,560,934
| 1966| 2,719,730
| 1976| 4,530,223
| 1986| 6,058,207
| 1991| 6,497,238
| 1996| 6,758,845
| 2006| 7,711,230
| 2011| 8,244,759
| 2016| 8,737,510
}}

The city of Tehran had a population of 7,711,230 in 2,286,787 households at the time of the 2006 National Census.<ref name="2006 Tehran Province">{{cite report |title=Census of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1385 (2006): Tehran Province |language=fa |publisher=The Statistical Center of Iran |website=amar.org.ir |url=http://www.amar.org.ir/DesktopModules/FTPManager/upload/upload2360/newjkh/newjkh/23.xls |access-date=25 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110920084534/http://www.amar.org.ir/DesktopModules/FTPManager/upload/upload2360/newjkh/newjkh/23.xls |format=Excel |archive-date=20 September 2011 }}</ref> The following census in 2011 counted 8,154,051 people in 2,624,511 households.<ref name="2011 Tehran Province">{{cite report |title=Census of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1390 (2011): Tehran Province |language=fa |publisher=The Statistical Center of Iran |website=irandataportal.syr.edu |via=Iran Data Portal, Syracuse University |url=https://irandataportal.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/Tehran.xls |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120190153/https://irandataportal.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/Tehran.xls |archive-date=20 January 2023 |access-date=19 December 2022 |format=Excel }}</ref> The 2016 census measured the population of the city as 8,693,706 people in 2,911,065 households.<ref name="2016 Tehran Province">{{cite report |title=Census of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1395 (2016): Tehran Province |language=fa |publisher=The Statistical Center of Iran |website=amar.org.ir |url=https://www.amar.org.ir/Portals/0/census/1395/results/abadi/CN95_HouseholdPopulationVillage_23.xlsx |access-date=19 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212171617/https://www.amar.org.ir/Portals/0/census/1395/results/abadi/CN95_HouseholdPopulationVillage_23.xlsx |format=Excel |archive-date=12 December 2021 }}</ref>

===Language and ethnicity===
With its cosmopolitan atmosphere, Tehran is home to diverse ethnic and linguistic groups from all over the country. The present-day dominant language of Tehran is the [[Tehrani accent|Tehrani variety]] of the [[Persian language]], and the majority of people in Tehran identify themselves as [[Persian people|Persians]].<ref name="Mohammad" /><ref name="tabnak"/> However, before, the native language of the Tehran–Ray region was not Persian, which is linguistically Southwest Iranian and originates in [[Fars province|Fars]], but a now extinct [[Western Iranian languages|Northwestern Iranian language]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Central Dialects |author-last=Windfuhr |author-first=Gernot L. |author-link=Gernot Windfuhr |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |editor-last=Yarshater |editor-first=Ehsan |editor-link=Ehsan Yarshater |year=1991 |publisher=Routledge |location=London and New York |pages=242–252 |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/central-dialects |access-date=23 August 2013 |volume=5 |archive-date=5 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130905072810/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/central-dialects |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Iranian Azerbaijanis|Iranian Azeris]] form the second-largest ethnic group of the city, comprising about 10-15% <ref name="Iran-Azeris">{{cite news |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ir0052) |title=Iran-Azeris |publisher=[[Library of Congress Country Studies]] |date=December 1987 |access-date=13 August 2013 |archive-date=25 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125044513/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd%2Fcstdy%3A%40field%28DOCID+ir0052%29 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Country Study Guide-Azerbaijanis">{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0KOSUrLPC6IC&pg=PA152 |title=Country Study Guide-Azerbaijanis |year=2005 |publisher=STRATEGIC INFORMATION AND DEVELOPMENTS-USA |isbn=9780739714768 |access-date=13 August 2013 |archive-date=4 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904062040/https://books.google.com/books?id=0KOSUrLPC6IC&pg=PA152 |url-status=live }}</ref> of the total population, while ethnic [[Mazanderani people|Mazanderanis]] are the third-largest, comprising about 5% of the total population.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.irna.ir/fa/News/82021017/ |title=یک و نیم میلیون مازندرانی پایتخت نشین شدند |publisher=[[Islamic Republic News Agency|IRNA]] |date=3 April 2016 |language=fa |access-date=30 April 2017 |archive-date=20 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820072730/http://www.irna.ir/fa/News/82021017 |url-status=live }}</ref> Tehran's other ethnic communities include [[Kurds]], [[Iranian Armenians|Armenians]], [[Iranian Georgians|Georgians]], [[Bakhtiari people|Bakhtyaris]], [[Talysh people|Talysh]], [[Baloch people|Baloch]], [[Assyrians in Iran|Assyrians]], [[Arabs]], [[Iranian Jews|Jews]], and [[Circassians in Iran|Circassians]].

According to a 2010 census conducted by the Sociology Department of the [[University of Tehran]], in many districts of Tehran across various socio-economic classes in proportion to population sizes of each district and socio-economic class, 63% of the people were born in Tehran, 98% knew Persian, 75% identified themselves as ethnic Persian, and 13% had some degree of proficiency in a European language.<ref name="tabnak">{{Cite web |url=http://www.tabnak.ir/fa/news/133668 |title=چنددرصد تهرانی‌ها در تهران به دنیا آمده‌اند؟ |website=tabnak.ir |language=fa |date=3 November 2010 |access-date=18 December 2010 |archive-date=27 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227033705/http://www.tabnak.ir/fa/news/133668 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Tehran saw a drastic change in its ethnic-social composition in the early 1980s. After the political, social, and economic consequences of the [[1979 Revolution]] and the years that followed, a number of Iranian citizens, mostly Tehranis, left Iran. The majority of [[Iranian diaspora|Iranian emigrations]] have left for the [[Iranian Americans|United States]], [[Iranians in Germany|Germany]], [[Swedish Iranians|Sweden]], and [[Iranian Canadians|Canada]].

With the start of the [[Iran–Iraq War]] (1980–1988), the second wave of inhabitants fled the city, especially during the Iraqi air offensives on the capital. With most major powers backing Iraq at the time, economic isolation gave yet more reason for many inhabitants to leave the city (and the country). Having left all they had and having struggled to adapt to a new country and build a life, most of them never came back when the war was over. During the war, Tehran also received a great number of migrants from the west and the southwest of the country bordering [[Iraq]].

The unstable situation and the war in neighbouring [[Afghanistan]] and Iraq prompted a rush of refugees into the country who arrived in millions, with Tehran being a magnet for many seeking work, who subsequently helped the city to recover from war wounds, working for a far lower pay than local construction workers. Many of these refugees are being repatriated with the assistance of the [[United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees|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 language|Dari]]-speaking [[Tajiks|Tajik]] and [[Hazara people|Hazara]], speaking a variety of Persian, and Iraqi refugees are mainly [[Mesopotamian Arabic]]-speakers who are often of Iranian and Persian ethnic heritage.

=== Religion ===
{{See also|Religion in Iran|List of religious centers in Tehran}}
The majority of Tehranis are officially [[Twelver Shia]] [[Muslims]], which has also been the state religion since the 16th-century [[Safavid conversion of Iran to Shia Islam|Safavid conversion]]. Other religious communities in the city include followers of the [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] and [[Sufism|Mystic]] branches of Islam, various Christian denominations, Judaism, [[Zoroastrianism]], and the [[Baháʼí Faith]].

In the 2016 "Tehran Survey", when residents of Tehran were asked about the importance of religion in their life, 53.5% considered it to be "very important / important", 31.1% to be "rather important", 10.5% to be "not very important" and 4.8% to be "not at all important."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Asadzade |first=Peyman |date=28 February 2019 |title=Faith or Ideology? Religiosity, Political Islam, and Anti-Americanism in Iran |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jogss/ogy038 |journal=[[Journal of Global Security Studies]] |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=545–559 (see Figure 2) |doi=10.1093/jogss/ogy038 |issn=2057-3170 }}</ref>

There are many religious centres scattered around the city, from old to newly built centres, including [[List of religious centers in Tehran#Mosques and madrasehs|mosques]], [[List of religious centers in Tehran#Churches|churches]], [[List of religious centers in Tehran#Synagogues|synagogues]], and [[List of religious centers in Tehran#Fire temples|Zoroastrian fire temples]]. The city also has a very small third-generation Indian [[Sikh]] community with a local [[gurdwara]] that was visited by the Indian Prime Minister, [[Manmohan Singh]] in 2012.<ref name="Indian Prime Minister in Tehran">{{cite web |last=Lakshman |first=Nikhil |title=Indian Prime Minister in Tehran |url=http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-how-to-organise-a-summit-the-iranian-way/20120830.htm |website=Rediff.com |access-date=3 September 2012 |archive-date=3 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120903043924/http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-how-to-organise-a-summit-the-iranian-way/20120830.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>