Golestan

Golestan province is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, located in the northeast of the country and southeast of the Caspian Sea. Its capital is Gorgan, formerly called Esterabad until 1937. Golestan was split off from Mazandaran province in 1997.

The province was made a part of Region 1 upon the division of the provinces into 5 regions, solely for coordination and development purposes, on 22 June 2014. Majority of its population are Sunni Muslims.At the 2006 census, the province's population was 1,593,055 in 379,354 households. The following census in 2011 showed an increase in population to 1,777,014 in 482,842 households. At the most recent census conducted in 2016, the population had risen to 1,868,819 in 550,249 households.