*Image from lonelyplanet.com

Geography and Population of Iran

With an area of 1,648,000 square kilometers (636,000 sq mi), Iran ranks eighteenth in size among the countries of the world. Iran is about one-fifth the size of the continental United States, or slightly larger than the combined area of the western United States (Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Idaho).

Population: 76,923,300 (July 2010 est.).

Highest peak: Mount Damavand, 5,610 meters (18,406 ft).

Capital: Tehran.

Important Cities: Shiraz, Esfahan, Tabriz, Mashhad, Kerman, Qom, Ghazvin. Bushehr, Bandar Abbas.

Neighbors: Turkmenistan, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Armenia, Caspian Sea (North), Turkey, Iraq (West), Afghanistan, Pakistan (East), Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea (South).

Iranian Origin: Indo-European.

Languages: Persian (Farsi) and its dialects, Turkish, Kurdish, and Balochi (both Kurdish and Balochi are versions of old Iranian languages).

Ethnic Groups: Persians, Azeris, Kurds, Turkmens, Balochis, Armenians, Assyrians, Jews, and Arabs.

Religions:
Shia Islam (90% of the population).
Sunni Islam (8% of the population).
Christianity (Armenian and Assyrian Churches, estimated 500.000 Armenians live in Iran).
Zoroastrianism (estimated 20.000 Zoroastrians live in Iran). Judaism (estimated between 11.000 to 20.000 Jews live in Iran.)