A Typology of the Iranian Cities with Emphasis on the Urban Centres More Than 100000 Populations during the Last Forty Years (1966-2006)

his research tries to typify the urban centers which experienced a ore unbalanced growth in the recent 40 years. The main approach of he present paper is analytical-genetic and is based on the data which ave been collected from the statistical center of Iran. The cities have een classified in four groups between 1966 to 2006. The results evealed that these cities comprise about 70% of the urban population and had grown by number and share of population. There is a steady rowth from 1966 to 1986 and it gradually decreases to the recent ears. The main factors of urban population growth for the early enturies have been physical as it had a crucial role to the Iranian rban population distribution in the country, but in the recent decades he human factors such as economic and demographic policies mpacted the growth and distribution of the urban population. slamshahr with 12.91 % average growth had the highest level and the atellite cities of Tehran such as ods, Melard, Qarchak and Pakdasht n the outskirt of Tehran place in other levels due to absorption of he verspill population of the capital. Some cities like Masjedsolaiman and Abadan experienced very low nd negative growth.