[12] It neighbours the provinces of Bushehr to the west, Hormozgan to the south, Kerman and Yazd to the east, Isfahan to the north, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad to the northwest.

[17] The ancient Persians were present in the region from about the 10th century BC, and became the rulers of the largest empire the world had yet seen under the Achaemenid dynasty which was established in the mid 6th century BC, at its peak stretching from Thrace-Macedonia, Bulgaria-Paeonia and Eastern Europe proper in the west, to the Indus Valley in its far east.

However, it never extended its power in Fars beyond the main trade routes, and by the reign of Antiochus I or possibly later Persis emerged as an independent state that minted its own coins.

Following the death of Babak around 220, Ardashir who at the time was the governor of Darabgird, got involved in a power struggle of his own with his elder brother Shapur.

[21] After establishing his rule over Persis, Ardashir I rapidly extended the territory of his Sassanid Persian Empire, demanding fealty from the local princes of Fars, and gaining control over the neighboring provinces of Kerman, Isfahan, Susiana, and Mesene.

The main ethnic group in the province consists of Persians (including Larestani people and the Basseri), while Qashqai, Lurs, Arabs, Kurds, Georgians, and Circassians constitute minorities.

[22] Among the hundreds of thousands of Georgians and Circassians that were transplanted to Persia under Shah Abbas I, his predecessors, and successors, a certain amount of them were to guard the main caravan routes; many were settled around Āspās and other villages along the old Isfahan-Shiraz road.

By now the vast majority Caucasians that were settled in Fars have lost their cultural, linguistic, and religious identity, having mostly been assimilated into the population.

[23] The following census in 2011 counted 4,596,658 people in 1,250,135 households, of whom 67.6% were registered as urban dwellers (urban/suburbs), 32.1% villagers (small town/rural), and 0.3% nomad tribes.

The population history and structural changes of Fars province's administrative divisions over three consecutive censuses are shown in the following table.

The main native animals of the province are gazelle, deer, mountain wild goat, ram, ewe and many kinds of birds.

[42] The major products include cereal (wheat and barley), citrus fruits, dates, sugar beets and cotton.

Fars has major petrochemical facilities, along with an oil refinery, a factory for producing tires, a large electronics industry, and a sugar mill.

The cities of Jahrom, Lar and Lamerd also have airports linking them with Shiraz and Tehran and nearby Persian Gulf countries such as the UAE and Bahrain.