Ranking the Towns of Razavi Khorasan Province in Terms of Development Indicators, Using Factor Analysis Method

As a socio-economic category¡ growth and development was introduced first by economists¡ and then spread to other sciences. The main objective of development is to reduce regional disparities and speed up economic growth. Grading and ranking¡ using the scientific methods¡ leads to the recognition of regional inequalities. Identifying and studying the capabilities and facilities of areas and ranking them¡ is the first step in the planning and development of areas. This research¡ in terms of Practical objective and dominated approach¡ is descriptive-analytic. Statistical population contains all the towns of Razavi Khorasan province. In order to determine the level of development of the towns 24 variables were determined. According to examined criteria¡ the required data has been obtained from the general census of 1390 of Razavi Khorasan province. The obtained data has been analyzed by statistical techniques of factor analysis in SPSS and ARCMAP. The aim of this study is to determine the level of development of the towns of Razavi Khorasan province and to rank them according to the rate of enjoying different development indicators¡ using factor analysis. The results show that Mashhad city stands in the first place with a score of 5.55¡ and Gonabad¡ Dargaz and Nishapur towns¡ respectively¡ are ranked second¡ third and fourth. Finally¡ Zaveh¡ with a score of - 4.78 and ranked as twenty-seventh¡ is recognized as the poorest town.