air pollution, especially in urban areas, from vehicle emissions, refinery operations, and industrial effluents; deforestation; overgrazing; desertification; oil pollution in the Persian Gulf; wetland losses from drought; soil degradation (salination); inadequate supplies of potable water; water pollution from raw sewage and industrial waste; urbanization
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping-London Convention, Marine Dumping-London Protocol, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Environmental Modification, Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation
particulate matter emissions: 35.09 micrograms per cubic meter (2016 est.)
carbon dioxide emissions: 661.71 megatons (2016 est.)
methane emissions: 158.71 megatons (2020 est.)
mostly arid or semiarid, subtropical along Caspian coast
agricultural land: 30.1% (2018 est.)
arable land: 10.8% (2018 est.)
permanent crops: 1.2% (2018 est.)
permanent pasture: 18.1% (2018 est.)
forest: 6.8% (2018 est.)
other: 63.1% (2018 est.)
urban population: 77.3% of total population (2023)
rate of urbanization: 1.32% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)
forest revenues: 0.01% of GDP (2017 est.)
coal revenues: 0.01% of GDP (2017 est.)
degree of risk: intermediate (2020)
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea
vectorborne diseases: Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever
note: a new coronavirus is causing sustained community spread of respiratory illness (COVID-19) in Iran; sustained community spread means that people have been infected with the virus, but how or where they became infected is not known, and the spread is ongoing; illness with this virus has ranged from mild to severe with fatalities reported; as of 9 December 2022, Iran has reported a total of 7,559,999 cases of COVID-19 or 9,000.75 cumulative cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 population with a total of 144,649 cumulative deaths or a rate 172.2 cumulative deaths per 100,000 population; as of 4 December 2022, 73.52% of the population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine
municipal solid waste generated annually: 17.885 million tons (2017 est.)
municipal solid waste recycled annually: 894,250 tons (2017 est.)
percent of municipal solid waste recycled: 5% (2017 est.)
salt water lake(s): Caspian Sea (shared with Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan) - 374,000 sq km; Lake Urmia - 5,200 sq km; Lake Namak - 750 sq km
Euphrates (shared with Turkey [s], Syria, and Iraq [m]) - 3,596 km; Tigris (shared with Turkey, Syria, and Iraq [m]) - 1,950 km; Helmand (shared with Afghanistan [s]) - 1,130 km
note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth
Indian Ocean drainage: (Persian Gulf) Tigris and Euphrates (918,044 sq km)
municipal: 6.2 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)
industrial: 1.1 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)
agricultural: 86 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)
137.045 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)
NOTE: The information regarding Iran on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Iran 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Iran 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.
This page was last modified 01 Dec 23, Copyright © 23 ITA all rights reserved.