TEHRAN – According to the final results of the 2011 National Population and Housing Census of Iran, the country’s population has reached 75,149,669 people, the director of the Statistical Center of Iran said on Tuesday.

 

According to the census data, men constitute 50.4 percent of the country’s population, and women account for 49.6 percent, Adel Azar told reporters. 

 

He added that rural population constitutes 28.5 percent of the total population of the country, and urban population accounts for 71.4 percent.

 

The population of the country has more than doubled since 1976, when it was 33.7 million people, Azar stated.

 

Tehran, with a population of 12 million, is the most crowded province of the country, and Ilam, with a population of 557,599, is the most sparsely populated province, he said.

 

He also said that there are 1.6 million empty homes in the country. 

 

The number of cities in the country has increased from 201 in 1956 to 1331 in 2011, eight of which are metropolises whose populations are more than one million, Azar said.

 

On the religion of Iran’s population, he said that the number of Muslims has increased from 70 million in 2006 to 74.68 million in 2011, and the population of Christians has risen from 109,000 in 2006 to 117,000 in 2011, and the number of Jews has decreased since 2006.

 

The population of Afghan immigrants to Iran has increased from 1.2 million people in 2006 to 1.452 million in 2011 and the number of Iraqi immigrants has risen from 44.09 thousand to 51.5 thousand.

 

MJH/PA