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Urmia is the [[List of Iran cities by population|10th most populated]] city in [[Iran]]. At the 2012 census, its population was 667,499 with 197,749 households.<ref>{{IranCensus2006|04}}</ref> The city's inhabitants are predominantly [[Azeris]],<ref name="Country Study Giude-Azerbaijanis">{{cite news|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=0KOSUrLPC6IC&pg=PA152&dq=majority+of+the+population+of+East+Azarbaijan+and+a+majority+of+West+Azarbaijan.#v=onepage&q=majority%20of%20the%20population%20of%20East%20Azarbaijan%20and%20a%20majority%20of%20West%20Azarbaijan.&f=false |title=Country Study Giude-Azerbaijanis |publisher=STRATEGIC INFORMATION AND DEVELOPMENTS-USA |date= |accessdate=13 August 2013}}</ref><ref name="Iran-Azerbaijanis">{{cite news|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ir0052) |title=Iran-Azerbaijanis |publisher=[[Library of Congress Country Studies]] |date=December 1987 |accessdate=13 August 2013}}</ref><ref name="Looklex Encyclopaedia">{{cite web|url=http://looklex.com/e.o/orumiyeh.htm |title=Orumiyeh |publisher=[[Looklex Encyclopaedia]] |date= |accessdate=2013-08-13}}</ref><ref name="Britannica Encyclopaedia">{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/433619/Orumiyeh |title=Orumiye |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |date= |accessdate=2013-08-13}}</ref> who live alongside minorities of [[Kurds]], [[Assyrian Chaldean people|AssyriansChaldeans]], and [[Armenians]].<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/433619/Orumiyeh|title=Orumiyeh (Iran)|work=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref> The city is the trading center for a fertile agricultural region where fruits (especially [[apple]]s and [[grape]]s) and [[tobacco]] are grown.

An important town by the 9th century, Urmia was seized by the [[Seljuk Turks]] (1184), and later occupied a number of times by the [[Ottoman Turks]]. For centuries the city has had a diverse population which has at times included Muslims ([[Shia]]s and [[Sunni Islam|Sunnis]]), Christians ([[Eastern Catholic Churches|Catholics]], [[Protestantism|Protestants]], [[Assyrian Chaldean Church of the East|Nestorians]], and [[Oriental Orthodox Church|Orthodox]]), [[Jews]], [[Bahá'í Faith|Bahá'ís]] and [[Sufism|Sufis]]. Around 1900, Christians made up more than 40% of the city's population, however, most of the Christians fled in 1918<ref name=Columbia>http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Urmia.html</ref><ref name="nineveh.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.nineveh.com/Assyrians%20in%20the%20History%20of%20Urmia,%20Iran.html|title=Assyrians in the History of Urmia, Iran|publisher=}}</ref><ref name="nineveh.com"/><ref name="E.J. Brill 1936">E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936, M. Th Houtsma, page 1035, 1987</ref> as a result of the [[Persian Campaign]] during [[World War I]] and the [[Armenian Genocide|Armenian]] and [[Assyrian Chaldean Genocide]]s.

T. Burrow connected the origin of the name Urmia to [[Indo-Iranian]] urmi- "wave" and urmya- "undulating, wavy",<ref>The Proto-Indoaryans, by T. Burrow, The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 2 (1973), pp. 123-140, Published by: Cambridge University Press, see 139</ref> which is due to the local Assyrian Chaldean folk etymology for the name which related "Mia" to [[Syriac language|Syriac]] meaning "water." Hence ''Urmia'' simply means 'Watertown" — a befitting name for a city situated by a lake and surrounded by rivers, would be the cradle of water.<ref>{{cite journal | title=History of Assyrins in Urmia | author=Ishaya, Arianne | journal=JAAS | year=2002 | volume=XVI | issue=1}}</ref> This also suggests, that the Assyrians Chaldeans referred to the Urartian influence in Urmia as ancestors of the inhabitants of the Sumerian Chaldean city state [[Ur]], referenced Biblically as "Ur of the Chaldees". Further association of the Urmia/Urartian/Ur etymology from the Assyrian Chaldean folk legend is the fact that the [[Urartian language]] is also referenced as the Chaldean language, a standardized simplification of Neo-Assyrian Chaldean cuneiform, which originated from the accreditation to Urartian chief god [[Ḫaldi]] or Khaldi. Thus the root of Urmia is an Assyrian a Chaldean reference to the etymology of the Urartu/Ur Kingdoms and the Aramaic word "Mia" meaning water, which as T. Burrow noted, referenced the city that is situated by a lake and surrounded by rivers.

Due to the presence of substantial [[Christian]] minority at the end of the 19th century, Urmia was also chosen as a site of the first [[United States|American]] Christian mission in Iran in 1835. Another mission soon became operational in nearby [[Tabriz]] as well. During [[World War I]] the population was estimated as 30,000 by Dr. Caujole, a quarter of which (7,500) were Assyrians Chaldeans and 1,000 were Jews.<ref name="E.J. Brill 1936"/>

During the 19th century, the region became the center of a short lived Assyrian Chaldean renaissance with many books and newspapers being published in [[Syriac]]. Urmia was also the seat of a [[Dioceses of the Church of the East, 1552–1913|Chaldean diocese]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15225a.htm|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Urmiah|publisher=}}</ref><ref name=naby>{{cite journal|last=Naby|first=Eden|title=Theater, Language and Inter-Ethnic Exchange: Assyrian Performance before World War I Eden Naby1|journal=Iranian Studies, 40:4|date=September 2007|volume=40|series=4|pages=501–510|url=http://www.aina.org/articles/tlaieeapbww1.pdf|accessdate=30 September 2011}}</ref>

At the beginning of the [[First World War]] tens of thousands of Assyrians Chaldeans and Armenians from Anatolia found refuge in Urmia. The city changed hands several times between Russians and Kurds the following two years.<ref name="TejirianSimon2012">{{cite book|last1=Tejirian|first1=Eleanor H.|last2=Simon|first2=Reeva S.|title=Conflict, conquest, and conversion|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=bHwMD0-X7aYC&pg=PT351|accessdate=7 April 2013|date=1 September 2012|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-51109-4|pages=350–351}}</ref> The influx of Christian refugees and their alliance with the Russians angered the Muslims who attacked the Christian quarter in February 1918, The better armed Assyrians Chaldeans managed however to capture the whole city following a brief battle.<ref name="TejirianSimon2012"/> The region descended into chaos again after the assassination of the Assyrian Chaldean patriarch [[Shimun XXI Benyamin]] at the hands of [[Simko Shikak]] one month later. Turkish armies and Samko managed to finally take and plunder the city in June/July 1918.<ref name="Atabaki2006">{{cite book|last=Atabaki|first=Touraj|title=Iran and the First World War: Battleground of the Great Powers|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=M3adD9kNH1gC&pg=PA87|accessdate=7 April 2013|date=4 September 2006|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-86064-964-6|page=87}}</ref> Thousands of Assyrians Chaldeans were massacred, others found refuge under British protection in Iraq.<ref name="Atabaki2006"/><ref>{{citation|last1=Gaunt|first1=David|last2= Beṯ-Şawoce|first2=Jan|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=4mug9LrpLKcC|title=Massacres, resistance, protectors: Muslim-Christian relations in Eastern Anatolia during World War I|pages=106–107|year=2006|publisher=Gorgias Press LLC|isbn=978-1-59333-301-0}}</ref>

The city has been home to various [[ethnic groups]] during its long history. The population of Urmia in the early Islamic period were Christian.<ref name="EI">URMIYA, Encyclopaedia of Islam(edition 2)</ref> At the beginning of the 20th century, the city's population had a significant Christian minority (Assyrians Chaldeans and Armenians).<ref name=Columbia/><ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=RT0bAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Baker+iran&hl=en&sa=X&ei=EFVcVLC8NLOp7Abe5IHoDw&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=urmia&f=false|title=Iran|publisher=}}</ref> By 1900 the Christianity population of the town had grown to some 40-50 percent.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.questia.com/read/1E1-Urmia/urmia|title=Urmia|publisher=}}</ref><ref>http://www..com/EBchecked/topic/433619/Orumiyeh</ref> According to Macuch, and Ishaya, the city was the spiritual capital of the [[Assyrian Chaldean people|AssyriansChaldeans]] were influenced by four Christian missions which were established in the city from period from 1830 to the end of [[World War I]].<ref name="Macuch">{{cite web|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/assyrians-in-iran|title=ASSYRIANS IN IRAN|publisher=}}</ref> A large number of the Assyrians Chaldeans and Armenians were killed in 1914 as result of the [[Armenian Genocide|Armenian]] and [[Assyrian Chaldean Genocide]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K3monyE4CVQC&pg=PA271&lpg=PA271&dq=assyrianChaldean+genocide+urmia&source=bl&ots=fHtN0oKuzA&sig=OEOXRcDXDd5CnVBNH0dIhuJxZkw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OD6OVOvDA4-1sASJ-IKADg&ved=0CEIQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=assyrianChaldean%20genocide%20urmia&f=false|title=The Armenian Genocide|publisher=}}</ref> which led to a shift in the city's demographics.<ref name="Macuch"/> During the era of [[Reza Shah Pahlavi]], Iranian Assyrians Chaldeans were invited to return to the region and several thousand did return. There are around 5,000 Assyrians Chaldeans left in the city,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.academia.edu/1846175/Evidence_in_Stone_and_Wood_The_Assyrian_Syriac_History_and_Heritage_of_the_Urmia_Region_in_Iran_as_Reconstructed_from_Epigraphic_Evidence |title=Evidence in Stone and Wood: The Assyrian/Syriac History and Heritage of the Urmia Region in Iran |publisher=academia.edu}}</ref> or around 1% of the population.

Today the population is mostly made up of [[Azerbaijanis]]<ref name="Country Study Giude-Azerbaijanis" /><ref name="Iran-Azerbaijanis" /><ref name="Looklex Encyclopaedia" /><ref name="Britannica Encyclopaedia" /> who live alongside Christians, [[Kurdish people|Kurdish]],<ref name="Looklex Encyclopaedia" /><ref name="Britannica Encyclopaedia" /> [[Assyrian Chaldean people|AssyrianChaldean]]<ref name="Looklex Encyclopaedia" /><ref name="Britannica Encyclopaedia" /> and [[Armenians|Armenian]]<ref name="Looklex Encyclopaedia" /><ref name="Britannica Encyclopaedia" /> minorities.

The majority of people are followers of [[Shia]] [[Islam]]. There are also [[Eastern Catholic Churches|Catholic]], [[Protestantism|Protestant]], [[Assyrian Chaldean Church of the East|Nestorian]], and [[Oriental Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] [[Christian]]s.{{cn|date=April 2015}} The city is also home to followers of [[Sunni Islam]], followers of the [[Bahá'í Faith]], followers of [[Judaism]]{{cn|date=April 2015}} and followers of different kinds of [[Sufism]].{{cn|date=April 2015}}

* [[Freydun Atturaya]] (1891-1926) - [[Assyrian Chaldean people|AssyrianChaldean]] physician and politician

[[Category:Assyrian Chaldean settlements]]