Zoroastrian Heritage |
Contents
Demographics
Group Names
Use of Group Names
On this web site, we will use the following system:
• Iranian Zoroastrians are Zoroastrians with origins in Iran (Persia), and
• Indian Zoroastrians are Zoroastrians who migrated from Iran to India.
Amongst the Zoroastrians who made India their home:
• Parsis or Parsees (meaning Persians) are Zoroastrians who came with the first migration wave to India 1,300 years ago, and
• Iranis or Irani Zoroastrians are Zoroastrians who migrated in the last three hundred or so years, in large part from the Iranian provinces of Yazd and Kerman.
Migrations & Diaspora
Zoroastrians have been on the move from their original Central Asia homeland for thousands of years. Three thousand years ago the history became aware of the Persians and Media in the north-western corner of present day Iran. In the period from 800 - 700 BCE, the Persians migrated south and east into the area surrounding modern-day Pars (Fars) province in Iran.
For a thousand years from 700 BCE to 640 CE, the Persian empire became the home of Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrians did not proselytize or engage in the forcible conversion of peoples of other religions. The Persians and Persian monarchs were for the main part accepting of other religious traditions co-existing throughout the empire. As such, Zoroastrianism did not spread in the manner of other world religions - it remained primarily a religion of people of Aryan descent. This does not mean there was any attempt at exclusivity and it is widely reported that there were pockets of local Chinese and other ethnic groups throughout areas of Aryan influence and trade who were Zoroastrians. The Zoroastrian population at the height of the Persian empire must have numbered in the millions.
After the invasion of Iran by the Arabs around 640 CE, and the conversion under duress or otherwise, of the majority of the Zoroastrian population in the traditional Aryan lands to Islam, a small group of Zoroastrians migrated from Iran to India. The Zoroastrians who remained in Iran lived mainly in the provinces of Yazd and Kerman.
One of the conditions for permitting the Zoroastrian refugees to settle in India, was that they would not convert Hindus to Zoroastrianism. For the Zoroastrians who remained in Iran, any attempt at converting a Muslim would have resulted in certain death. These conditions combined with the emancipation of Zoroastrians, marriages late in life and fewer births than deaths, resulted in a declining population that reached levels of 120,000 people worldwide in the 1960s, making Zoroastrians members of one of the smallest religious minorities in the world.
In the late 1700s, the Zoroastrian migrants to India, the Parsis, started to re-establish their historic trade links with China and in doing so set up a settlement in China. In the 1830s and 1840s, Parsis expanded their trade links to colonies in the British empire including Aden, East Africa, and Britain. After 1870, the Parsis settled in significant numbers in East Africa, especially Nairobi and Mombasa. With the relaxation of immigration rules to Britain, Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand in the 1960s, Zoroastrians from India, the former British colonies and Iran, began to migrate once again - this time to the New World, if we may be permitted to use this name for lands that were home to their Aboriginal peoples.
The major Zoroastrian population centres in the world today are Mumbai and Pune in India; Toronto, Canada; Los Angeles, US, and London, England.
Danger of Extinction
 |
| Parsi population decline (India) |
The following points illustrate the dangers faced by Zoroastrianism:
• Guinness Book of World Records lists Zoroastrianism the "major religion nearest extinction."
• Youth under 18 years of age account for 18% of the Zoroastrian population.
• Adults over 60 years of age constitute 31% of the Zoroastrian population, the highest for an ethnic group anywhere in the world.
• By 2008, the birth-to-death ratio was 1:5 - 200 births per year to 1,000 deaths (The Guardian 2008-06-28).
• The literacy rate amongst Zoroastrians is the highest in India (or anywhere in the world) at 97.9%.
• Despite the above, statistics to the contrary are beginning to emerge. For instance, The World Almanac And Book Of facts distributed by St Martin's Press and printed in the US, lists the current Zoroastrian population world wide is 2,728,000.
Worldwide Population Figures
| Country or Region | 1855 1 | 1941 | 1976 2 | 2005 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| India | 145,544 | 114,000 | 77,000 | 69,600 3 |
| Iran | 7,158+ | 20,000 | 25,000 | 24,000 |
| Europe | 5,000 | |||
| North America | 23,000 | 23,000 | ||
| Pakistan, Rest of Asia, Australia, New Zealand | 5,000 (Pakistan only) | 2,500 | ||
| Total | 152,694 | 134,000 | 130,000 | 128,100 |
| Notes: 1. Maneckji Limji Hataria 2. The Eliade Guide to World Religions 1991 3. 2001 Indian government census (69,601) | ||||
David A. Barrett, editor of the World Christian Encyclopedia, 2001 states that the Zoroastrian population had by 2000 grown to 2,543,950. It is unclear where David Barrett obtained these figures. If true, the figures make Zoroastrianism the world's fastest growing religions on a percentage basis. The reason he gives for this dramatic rise is the number of individuals who declared that they were Zoroastrian in the Aryan home countries - primarily Iran:
| Country | 1970 | 2000 |
|---|---|---|
| Afghanistan | 0 | 304,454 |
| Iran | 22,500 | 1,903,182 |
| Tajikistan | 0 | 7,426 |
| Uzbekistan | 0 | 3,042 |
| Total | 22,500 | 2,218,104 |
Barrett further predicts that the Zoroastrian population in 2025 will be 4,439,930, and in 2050 it will has risen to 6,964,700!
It has been reported anecdotally, that there are a number of closet Zoroastrians in the Aryan home countries (Iran, Afghanistan, Northern Iraq, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and neighbouring lands) who are outwardly Muslim but who are secretly Zoroastrian. This is for reasons of persecution and a denial of opportunity to non-Muslims, especially Zoroastrians. We are unable to confirm this phenomenon.
Iranian Zoroastrian Demographics
About a hundred years ago, Yazdi's constituted the largest number of Iranian Zoroastrians.
A.V. Williams Jackson gives the following figures for Iranian Zoroastrians in 1903:
| City | 1855 1 | 1903 2 | 1917 3 | 1975 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yazd & vicinity | 6,658 | 8,000 - 8,500 | 10,000 | 4,000 |
| Kerman | 450 | 2,400 | 2,800 | 2,000 |
| Tehran | 50 | 324 | 200 | 19,000 |
| Kashan | 45 | |||
| Shiraz | "handful" | 42 | ||
| Isfahan, Qom | 18 | |||
| Total | 7,158+ | 11,000 | 13,000 | 25,000 |
| Notes: 1. Maneckji Limji Hataria 2. A.V. Williams Jackson 3. D.L. Lorimer 4. G. Windfuhr | ||||
While by 1975, Tehran had become the centre of Iranian Zoroastrians in the last hundred years, the Zoroastrians of Tehran had for the main part migrated there from Yazd, Kerman and the other districts. Due to migrations to North America, by the mid 1980s, the number of Zoroastrians in Iran had declined to 20,000 with virtually no Zoroastrians left in Kerman.
Parsi Mortality Rates
The mortality rate in India for Parsi Zoroastrians as reported in the 2001 census conducted by the Government of India shows that approximately 90 percent of mortality occurs at age 61 and above - a significant difference from the rest of the Indian population.
| Category | No |
|---|---|
| Still Born | 9 |
| Under 1 Year | 2 |
| Between 11-15 years | 1 |
| Between 16-18 years | 1 |
| Between 19-24 years | 1 |
| Between 25-30 years | 2 |
| Between 31-40 years | 6 |
| Between 41-50 years | 27 |
| Between 51-60 years | 81 |
| Between 61-70 years | 201 |
| Between 71-80 years | 468 |
| Between 81-90 years | 471 |
| Between 91-100 years | 123 |
| Over 100 years | 6 |
| Total Deaths | 1399 |
| Male Deaths | 722 |
| Female Deaths | 677 |
New Zealand Zoroastrian Population
We found these notes on the web at jamejamshedonline and have included them as they show some interesting trends:
"The first known Zoroastrian to come to New Zealand was Hormuzji Ratanjee Shroff, a businessman with a Master of Arts degree from Oxford University, England. He migrated in 1877 with his wife and three children and set up a hardware supply business, Shroff and Sons, in Auckland which is still being run by his descendants.
"In 1986 there were said to be just about 17 Zoroastrians in the country. By 1990 the number increased to approximately 45 and by February 2000 the community numbered 300.
"The demographics of the Zoroastrian community in New Zealand, as compiled by former ZANZ (Zoroastrian Association of New Zealand) president Tehmus Mistry from 2003 data, sets the total figure at 840 individuals. Adult males number 331, and adult females 302. Comprising 349 families, 75 have one child, 120 have two children and 12 have three and over. About 142 families are unaccounted for in terms of their children and presumably are couples or single member households. The majority - 90 percent - live in Auckland, four percent in Wellington and two percent in Christchurch. The majority of new migrants were originally from Bombay, but the Middle East, Pakistan, Canada and the US have also contributed to the growing community.
"New Zealand now has a Zoroastrian population of over a thousand and still growing."
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• © Author: K. E. Eduljee, Zoroastrian Heritage, Heritage Institute, 2007-10 • Contact • Page validated by W3C.org