More than a quarter of Iran’s population lives in rural area

Tehran. August 8. IrTAG – Just over a quarter of population of Iran, i.e. 26%, lives in the rural area, Iranian Telegraph Agency (IrTAG) reports.
The data, according to the Financial Tribune, are based on the results of the National Population and Housing Census.
During the period under review, Iran’s population increased by 4.7 million people and reached 79.92 million people.
At the same time, a decrease is observed in the size of the average household – from 3.5 members to 3.3. A similar process is observed in rural areas, where this index reduced to 3.4 from 3.7, meaning the average household size is almost equal for rural and urban areas.
The families size reduction can be referred to high rates of internal migration, when men leave villages to search for employment in the cities.
The report notes, over the past five years the internal migration process affected 4.7 million people, 84% of whom left to the cities. With this the reverse process was also revealed, when people move from cities to rural areas, though these numbers remain relatively small. Out of all the internal migrants within the last 10 years only 15% moved from cities to rural areas.
In addition, nearly 33 thousand villages in Iran got emptied, and another 25 thousand have no more than 20 households.