Recall that an ion is an atom or molecule that has gained or lost electrons, resulting in a net electric charge.
Understand that a positively charged ion (also called a cation) has lost one or more electrons compared to the number of protons in its nucleus.
Since protons are positively charged and electrons are negatively charged, losing electrons means there are more protons than electrons, giving the ion a positive charge.
Therefore, a positively charged ion has fewer electrons than protons.
This distinguishes it from a neutral atom, which has equal numbers of protons and electrons, and from a negatively charged ion (anion), which has more electrons than protons.