Urban – Rural Convergence of Demographic Attitudes in Iran

This paper focuses on the patterns and determinants of the urban-rural convergence associated with demographic attitudes. The key research question lies in the fact that, on the one hand, the contemporary world has witnessed substantial changes in the individuals’ orientations towards the values of society and family. On the other hand, the expectacular achievements in communications and media technologies have created the emerging phenomenon of the ‘world society’ and ‘global village’ so that such changes in the individuals’ orientations towards the values of society and family have been widespread throughout the world. Does this apply to the urban and rural places, leading to the convergence between rural and urban residents in terms of demographic attitudes?The results of this study have supported the bottomline conclusion that in accordance with the globalizition process arising from revolutionary achievements in communications and media technologies, both urban and rural areas are experiencing substantial changes in individuals’ orientations and attitudes towards the values of society and family. This suggests that the rural and urban residents’ demographic attitudes tend to become increasingly more convergent. Furthermore, the results of this study confirm that the role of such main determinants as age and education needs to be taken into account in order to shed further lights on the urban-rural convergence associated with demographic attitudes.