Analyzing the Level of Development in Rural Areas of Kurdistan Province in 1996 and 2006 using Factor and Cluster Analyses

Due to the fast growing trend of urbanization in the third world countries and the disparities between urban and rural areas in terms of income, employment and the availability of basic infrastructure and services, it is important to pay more attention to the rural settlements to create a balanced development across each region. This will pave the way for a kind of sustainable urban community in future. Since the development is a multi-dimensional concept which includes reorganization of the entire economic and social system, it is essential to investigate its different levels and identify the rate of development across the regions as important step in such reorganization and planning. Apart from rural areas, this is more important from regional point of view. Regarding this, the following research questions became a starting point to organize the methodology and the sources of information: 1. Does the distance of rural settlements from the centre of province affect the rate of development? 2. Does the frontier location of the province affect the rate of rural development? 3. Is there any link between the rural settlements development and mountainous features of the province?The research commenced with a comprehensive literature and document analysis and due to its major approach, is in line with applied research to recognize differences between the regions. For this, different indices have been characterized and used regarding different Social, economic, physical, health, and cultural aspects of development from two National Population and Housing Census of 1996 and 2006. Considering these indices, the level of development across the rural areas ofKurdistan province has been identified using factor and cluster analyses and the results classified and mapped by GIS. The research results show that there is an inequality in the level of development across the rural areas of the province. In this regard, the rural settlements of Kamyaran, Bejar and Saqez can be classified as Middle-developed and Marivan and Baneh as less-developed areas in 1996. In 2006, the rural settlements of Bejar, Qourveh and Sanandaj have been classified as developed, Kamyaran, Devandareh and Sarvabad as Middle-developed and Saqez and Baneh as lessdeveloped areas in Kurdistan province. This inequality is mainly associated with the level and amount of agricultural land ownership, distance and proximity to the main roads, distances to theborder, geographical and environmental conditions and situation of the villages. Therefore, the counties of eastern part of the province which are close to the main roads had better conditions than other counties of western part.