Fifteen Iranian Provincial Capitals in Order of 2016 Census Population, from Kermanshah to Yasuj

Kermanshah leads the order with 946,651 residents in the urban area at the 2016 census, in western Iran about 525 kilometers west of Tehran. The page records its founding in 390 AD by the Sasanian ruler Bahram IV and names the nearby Behistun Inscription, a UNESCO World Heritage Site important for the decipherment of cuneiform script.

Urmia recorded 736,224 urban residents in 2016, the tenth most populous city in Iran, near the borders with Turkey and Iraq. It sits at 1,330 meters along the Shahar River on the Urmia Plain with the salt lake Lake Urmia to its east, and the page notes Christian missionary activity there from 1835.

Rasht, capital of Gilan province on the Caspian coast, recorded 679,995 residents in 2016 and is the most populous city in the north of the country. Its page cites a first mention in Umayyad documents in 682 CE and a 2015 UNESCO recognition as a creative city of gastronomy.

Zahedan recorded 587,730 urban residents in 2016, in the far southeast near the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was first mentioned in 1849 as Duzdab, meaning water sink, and was renamed Zahedan in 1929, growing quickly from a small village into the capital of Sistan and Baluchestan.

Hamadan recorded 554,406 residents in 2016, the thirteenth largest city in Iran, in the foothills of Alvand Mountain about 360 kilometers southwest of Tehran. Known in antiquity as Ecbatana, it was capital of the Median Empire around 700 BCE, and the page names the Ganj Nameh inscription among its sights.

Kerman recorded 537,718 residents in 2016 and sits about 800 kilometers from Tehran in the southeast. The cited history says Ardashir I, founder of the Sasanian Empire, founded it as the defensive outpost Veh-Ardashir in the third century AD, and the page notes a visit by Marco Polo in 1271.

Yazd recorded 529,673 residents in 2016, about eight thousand fewer than Kerman, and its historic city has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2017. The page describes its desert architecture and windcatchers known as badgir, and notes that Marco Polo visited in 1272 and praised its silk weaving.

Arak recorded 520,944 residents in 2016, the eighteenth largest city in Iran. It was founded in 1808 as Soltanabad by Yusef Khan-e Gorji and renamed Arak under Reza Shah, who established modern factories there, which is why the page calls it the industrial capital of the country.

Zanjan recorded 430,871 residents in 2016, the twentieth largest city in Iran. It lies about 298 kilometers from Tehran on the main highway toward Tabriz and Turkey, and the page places its founding in the Sasanian period.

Qazvin recorded 402,748 residents in 2016, about 150 kilometers northwest of Tehran at roughly 1,278 meters. It served as capital of the Safavid Empire for more than forty years, from 1555 to 1598, before Shah Abbas the Great moved the capital to Isfahan.

Khorramabad recorded 373,416 residents in 2016, in a Zagros Mountains valley at 1,147 meters. The page traces it from Paleolithic sites in the region through the Sasanian refounding as Shapurkhwast to the Atabegs of Little Lorestan, who ruled from 1184 to 1596, and calls it the largest Luri speaking city in Iran.

Gorgan recorded 350,676 residents in 2016, the 24th largest city in Iran, about 30 kilometers from the Caspian Sea. Formerly called Astarabad, it corresponds to the ancient city of Zadracarta in Hyrcania, and the page names the Parthian and Sasanian era Great Wall of Gorgan nearby.

Birjand recorded 203,636 residents in 2016, the capital of South Khorasan in eastern Iran. Its first documented mention is in the thirteenth century geographic work Mojem Alboldan by Yaqut Homavi, and the page lists saffron, barberry and handmade carpets among its exports.

Shahrekord recorded 190,441 residents in 2016, up from 126,746 in 2006. At 2,070 meters above sea level it is the highest of Iran's provincial capitals, and the page records that its name changed in 1935 from Deh-e Kord, meaning village, to Shahr-e Kord, meaning city.

Yasuj ends the order with 134,532 residents in 2016, in the Zagros Mountains of southwestern Iran. The page calls it the wettest city in Iran south of the Alborz Mountains and notes that Alexander the Great and his Macedonian forces breached the nearby Persian Gates pass in 331 BC.