City size and quality of life in urban settlements Case Study: Guilan and Mazandaran Provinces

Quality of life is a complex, multi dimensional, time and place dependent concept. One of the important factors affecting quality of life is the size of the dwelling. Accordingly, the present study seeks to investigate the relationship between city size and quality of life. The study area is urban settlements of Guilan and Mazandaran provinces. Objective data on quality of life were extracted from the population census of 2016 and subjective data on quality of life using a researcher-made questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics techniques including mean, standard deviation, one-sample T test, correlation analysis and principal component analysis were used to analyze the data. The results showed that the objective dimension of quality of life including housing quality, access to facilities and services, literacy rate and access to job opportunities had a positive and significant correlation with city size and subjective dimension of quality of life including relaxation, life satisfaction, opportunity and social capital have a significant negative correlation with city size.