The widowhood is one of four categories of the marital status. Inasmuch as the probability of a second marriage after the death of spouse for females is less than males, the widowhood becomes more frequent for females. In this article an attempt is made to elaborate on the demographic characteristics of widows and changes in those characteristics overtime on the basis of survey and census data. Trends and determinants of changes in the number, age structure, education and urbanization of widows and their mean years of married life are the issues taken into the consideration in this study. Excess of widows over the widowers and the exceptional rise of such an excess due to the imposed war in 1986, gradual decrease in the range of the percentage of widows between age 15 to 65 years old which is due to rise in the life expectancy of men, gradual rise in the mean age of widowhood, the positive impact of education on duration of marrired life and excess of the rate of urbanization of widows over the total population are among the salient findings of this article.