On the first level of country subdivisions of Iran are the provinces

Provinces of Iran

Iran is subdivided into thirty one provinces , each governed from a local center, usually the largest local city, which is called the capital of that province...

.

Each province is further subdivided into counties called shahrestan

Shahrestan

Shahrestan or Shahristan may refer to:*Counties of Iran*Shahristan District*Shahrestan, Afghanistan...

 , and each shahrestan is subdivided into districts called bakhsh

Bakhsh

A bakhsh is a type of administrative division of Iran. While sometimes translated as county, it is more accurately translated as district, as they are similar to a township in the United States or a district of England....

 . There are usually a few cities and rural agglomerations in each county. Rural agglomerations are a collection of a number of villages. One of the cities of the county is appointed as the capital of the county.

According to the Statistical Center of Iran, the figures are as follows, as of March 2005 (end of Iranian Calendar

Iranian calendar

The Iranian calendars or sometimes called Persian calendars are a succession of calendars invented or used for over two millennia in Greater Iran...

 1383):

English	Persian sing.	Persian pl.	number
Provinces Provinces of Iran Iran is subdivided into thirty one provinces , each governed from a local center, usually the largest local city, which is called the capital of that province...	استان ostān	استان‌ها ostānhā	30
Counties Counties of Iran The provinces of Iran further subdivided into counties called shahrestan , an area inside an ostan, and consists of a city centre, few bakhsh and many villages around them. There are usually a few cities and rural agglomerations in each county. Rural agglomerations are a collection of a number...	شهرستان shahrestān		324
Districts	بخش bakhsh		865
Townships	شهر shahr		982
rural agglomerations	دهستان dehestān		2378

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 and/or one or more RAs (rural agglomerations). In our example, the Central district contains City M, City N, and RA T composed of the villages V1, V2, V3, and V4, in turn; district X contains City O and RA U; and district Y has no cities and one RA V. The minimal county consists of only one city as the only district, named Central, of course. The county B in the following table is of such type, containing only one city Q.

Province	County	District	City / RA*	Villages
P	A	Central	City M (c)
			City N
			RA T	V1, V2, V3, V4
		X	City O
			RA U	V5, V6
		Y	RA V	V7, V8, V9
	B	Central	City Q