Iran (http://iranthecountry.blogspot.com)

Location: Middle East, bordering the Gulf of Oman, the Persian Gulf, and the Caspian Sea, between Iraq and Pakistan

Geography: Rugged, mountainous rim; high, central basin with deserts, mountains; small, discontinuous plains along both coasts

Population: 77,891,220

Current Government Type Political State: Theocratic Republic; a form of government in which a Deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler, but the Deity's laws are interpreted by ecclesiastical authorities (bishops, mullahs, etc.); a government subject to religious authority.

Education and Literacy Rates: age 15 and over can read and write, total population: 77%, male: 83.5%, female: 70.4%

Languages: Persian and Persian dialects 58%, Turkic and Turkic dialects 26%, Kurdish 9%, Luri 2%, Balochi 1%, Arabic 1%, Turkish 1%, other 2%

Religions: Muslim 98% (Shia 89%, Sunni 9%), other (includes Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian, and Baha'i) 2%

Birth rates: 18.55 births/1,000 population

Death rates: 5.94 deaths/1,000 population

Life Expectancy: 70.06 years

Ethnic groups: Persian 51%, Azeri 24%, Gilaki and Mazandarani 8%, Kurd 7%, Arab 3%, Lur 2%, Baloch 2%, Turkmen 2%, other 1%

Legal System:  based on sharia law system; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage(Voting Rights): 18 years of age; universal

Unemployment Rate: 14.6%

Population Below Poverty Line: 18%

Industries: petroleum, petrochemicals, fertilizers, caustic soda, textiles, cement and other construction materials, food processing (particularly sugar refining and vegetable oil production), ferrous and non-ferrous metal fabrication, armaments

Communications: Currently being modernized and expanded with the goal of not only improving the efficiency and increasing the volume of the urban service but also bringing telephone service to several thousand villages, not presently connected. 25.804 million wired phones, 52.555 million mobile phones.

Military Service: 19 years of age for compulsory military service; 16 years of age for volunteers; 17 years of age for Law Enforcement Forces; 15 years of age for Basij Forces (Popular Mobilization Army); conscript military service obligation - 18 months; women exempt from military service (2008)

Transnational issues: Iran is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude; Iranian women are trafficked internally for the purpose of forced prostitution and for forced marriages to settle debts.