Languages of Iran

Different publications have reported different statistics for the languages of Iran. There have been some limited censuses taken in Iran in 2001, 1991, 1986 and 1949-1954.

The following are the languages with the greatest number of speakers (data from the CIA World Factbook):

• Persian, Gilaki and Mazandarani 66%
• Azeri Turkish and other Turkic dialects 18%
• Kurdish 10%
• Balochi 2%
• Arabic 2%
• Other languages comprise 2%, and include Turkmen, Pashto, Armenian, Assyrian and Brahui, etc.
• Total population 75,149,669 (2012 census)

According to the Kurdish-Belgian-American scholar Mehrdad Izady whose work can be found at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, Gulf 2000 Project website, the Iranian census of 2001 mentions that 68% speak Persian as first language, while he himself gives the following figures:

• Persian, Luri 63.3%
• Azeri Turkic and Turkic dialects 13%
• Kurdish 7%
• Gilaki 3.6%
• Mazandarani 3%
• Balochi 2.5%
• Arabic 1.8%
• Other languages include Turkmen, Pashto, Armenian, Syriac, Georgian, Qashqai, Brahui, Raji, Minabi, as well as other Western Iranian languages (Lari, Talysh, Tatic, Raji, etc.)

A census taken in the Iranian month of Mordad (July 21 – August 21) in 1991. In this census, all 49,588 mothers who gave birth in the country, were issued birth certificates. They were asked about their mother-tongue.

The break down: 46.2% (Persian), 20.6% (Azeri-Turkish), 10% Kurdish, 8.9% Luri, 7.2% Gilaki and Mazandarani, 3.5% Arabic, 2.7% Baluchi, 0.6% Turkmen, 0.1% Armenian, and 0.2% Others.

A recent survey by the US-based organization "Terror Free Tommorow" with error is +/- 3.1 percent margin and uniform sampling based on provincial populations mentions the breakdown as following

• Persian 50.5%
• Azeri 21.6%
• Gilaki and Mazandarani 6.9%
• Kurd 7.6%
• Arab 2.7%
• Lur 6.9%
• Baloch 1.4%
• Turkmen 0.9%
• Other 1.2%
• unknown/refused about 1-1.5%

In 1986, there was also a nation-wide census done. See: (Farhad Nu’mani, Sohrab Behdad, Class and Labor in Iran: Did the Revolution Matter?, Published 2006, Syracuse University Press, 2006) on the percentage of Iranians that known Persian, those who do not know and those who know it fluently.

The Library of Congress like the Encyclopedia of Islam (Leiden) states Iran's ethnic groups as follows: Persians 65%, Azeris 16%, Kurds 7%, Lurs 6%, Arabs 2%, Baloch 2%, Turkmens 1%, Turkic tribal groups (e.g. Qashqai) 1%, and non-Persian, non-Turkic groups (e.g. Pashtuns, Armenians, Assyrians, and Georgians) less than 1%.