The Impact of Internal Migration on the Population Redistribution in Iran: The Period of 1991-2016

Migration has a major impact on the distribution of resources, health services, economic development, changing the population redistribution and settlement patterns, which causes changes in regional and national planning. In order to make these plans more effective, deep knowledge of migration flows is essential. However, less studies in Iran have examined the indicators related to the impact of internal migration on population redistribution. Hence, in the present study, using census data from 1996 to 2016, the study of migration indicators and its impact on population redistribution and changing of country's patterns (by five-year period, 1991-2016) is undertaken. The findings showed that in spite of fluctuations in the internal migration flows, different regions of the country experienced different migration rates. In the studied period, the border counties, especially the western and southeastern parts, have the highest rates of out-migration rate and the largest counties, mainly in the central regions have highest rates of in-migration. During the twenty-five years of study, the migration efficiency index, along with the change in net migration rates, showed similar regional differences with net migration. Despite these differences in counties, the rate of migration effectiveness during the periods of 2006-2016 has been decreasing. The study of the flow of internal migration also showed that this flow after three periods of migration (1991-1996, 1996-2001, and 2001-2006), which flowed from the lower density areas to the densely populated areas, during the period of 2006-2001 experienced an opposite flow. and the migration flow from the densely populated areas to low-density areas was formed, but during the last five period again, the migration flows was from low-density areas to densely populated areas. Consequently, if the decentralization of the country's facilities and investments does not diminish and the irregular development of the country continues, migration flows will continue to the denely populated areas.