Authors

• Yaser Feizabadi ¹
• Fatemeh Maleki ²

¹ Assistant professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Islamic Azad University, Qaemshahr, Iran

² M.Sc. Student at Agricultural Economics Department, Islamic Azad University, Qaemshahr, Iran

Abstract

Development trend has different stages in different countries so that countries are divided into different categories such as developed, less developed or undeveloped. The development process of different rural areas is not also the same within a country. The aim of this study is to rank and then compare the development degree of rural areas of Iran`s provinces using the factor analysis and numerical taxonomy methods in two years 2004 and 2014. The results of the comparison between provinces in 2004 demonstrate nine provinces as developed, eight provinces as moderately developed, four provinces as less developed, and five as under-developed, dozens of other provinces were considered heterogeneous, while the results in 2014 recognize six provinces as developed, eight provinces as moderately developed, six provinces as less developed, six provinces as under-developed and five provinces were considered inconsistent with other provinces. In general, the degree of inequality in rural areas has declined (0.017) slightly after one decade. So production rise within the agricultural sector accompanied by appropriate income distribution among villagers has been advised.

Keywords

• Development
• Rural Areas
• Factor Analysis
• Numerical Taxonomy
• Provinces of Iran