Administrative divisions of Iran

The first level of country subdivisions of Iran are the  provinces.

Each province is further subdivided into counties  called shahrestan, and each shahrestan is subdivided into districts called bakhsh. There are usually a few cities  and rural districts called dehestan  in each county. Rural districts are collections of  villages. One of the cities of the county is appointed as the capital of the county.

According to the government of Iran,https://www.amar.org.ir/Portals/0/Geo/GEO94-summary.pdf  (Iranian calendar 1394), the figures are as follows:
EnglishPersian sing.Persian pl.numberProvincesاستان ostānاستان‌ها ostānhā31Countiesشهرستان shahrestān429Districtsبخش bakhsh1057citiesشهر shahr1245rural districtsدهستان dehestān2589
 Map of Iran's Provinces
To better understand such subdivisions, the following table may be helpful. Assume that province P is divided into two counties: A and B. County A has 3 districts: Central, X, and Y. The Central district is the district that contains City M, the capital of the county. Each district might contain one or more cities or one or more RDs (rural districts). In our example, the Central district contains City M, City N, and rural district T composed of the villages V1, V2, V3, and V4, in turn; district X contains City O and rural district U; and district Y has no cities and one rural district V. The minimal county consists of only one city as the only district, named Central, which is most common. The county B in the following table is of such type, containing only one city Q. 
ProvinceCountyDistrictCity / RD*VillagesPACentralCity M (c)City NRD TV1, V2, V3, V4XCity ORD UV5, V6YRD VV7, V8, V9BCentralCity Q

Related pages
 Ostan (Geography)
 -stan
 -abad

 References and notes 

Category:Provinces of Iran