Which Countries Speak Persian in the World?

Persian is a beautiful and fascinating language with a history of thousands of years, it was spoken since the time of the ancient Persian Empire and it is spoken in parts of the middle east today. In this post we are going to look in detail exactly in which countries is Persian spoken.

Where is Persian spoken?

Iran

You probably already know it, but Persian is the main and official language of the Islamic republic of Iran. The variety spoken in Iran is known as Farsi, (also pronounced with the accent to the last i) which is simply a local name to say Persian

Afghanistan

Afghanistan is the second most populous Persian speaking country. It lies next to Iran and is mostly known for its complicated history, nevertheless the country has a lot to offer, from its beautiful landscapes to its cuisine and the warmth of its people. The Persian language spoken in the country is known as Dari, (also pronounced with the accent to the last i) and it is not a separate language even if a lot of people think so. Nevertheless it has a lot of special vocabulary, and there are a lot of words that are only used in Afghanistan and people from other countries might struggle to understand.

Tajikistan

The third most important country of the Persian world is Tajikistan. Lying in central Asia north to Afghanistan and next to Kyrgyzstan the country is relatively unknown. The main particularity of Tajik dialect is that is written with the cyrillic alphabet, this is due to the fact that it was conquered by Russia and formed part of the Soviet union for many year LIke Dari it has its own special words but is not regarded as a separate language. People that speak Tajik are found also outside Tajikistan in the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Russia.

Uzbekistan

If you are planning a trip to Uzbekistan you are for sure going to visit the ancient sity of Samarkand, known for being a central place on the silk road and for being a cultural and economic center for centuries. Nevertheless you might be amazed that in the city the most common language is not Uzbek like in the rest of the country, and neither Russian, instead in the city people use Persian (The Tajik variety in particular) as their main language. This is due to the fact that Samarkand has always been part of the Persian world, and it remains so even today.

Other middle eastern countries

Persian is also spoken by over a million people in parts of the arab world, specifically in iraq (where it has half a million speakers) and other gulf countries like Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabic. The vast majority of those people are migrants,mainly from Iran (and to a lesser extent Afghanistan/Tajikistan). That came to those countries mainly for working reasons. Nevertheless there are also some historical Persian communities that live there since centuries, they are known as Ajam or Ajami communities, and they take its name form the arab word ‘ajam which can mean non arab speaker or foreigner.

Moreover there are also 200.000 persian speaking people in Pakistan, they are mainly Afghan refugees from that fled the numerous wars of Afghanistan history.

And of course Persian is also spoken by million of persian and iranian people that migrated in all the word, particular in Sweden, germany United kingdom and in the United States.

How Many People Speak Persian Today?

Today, Persian is spoken by over 120 million people worldwide, either as a first or second language. As we saw before, it is the official language of Iran, where it is spoken by about 85 million people, and one of the two official languages of Afghanistan, where around 15–20 million speak Dari. In Tajikistan, about 8–9 million speak Tajiki Persian. Additionally, there are Persian-speaking communities in Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and the Persian Gulf states. The Persian diaspora also brings the language to countries across Europe, North America, and beyond, keeping it vibrant and global.