Investigating the Development of Rural Areas in Hamadan County of Iran Based on Social, Economic and Cultural Indicators

Sustainable and balanced growth of a country requires rural development in line with urban development as a necessity, which has been neglected by policymakers in most developing countries, especially Iran. In order to find a suitable solution to move in the direction of balanced development, it is necessary to determine the position and development status of rural areas as well as to formulate and implement development policies and programs according to this position. The present study examined 103 villages within eight sub-districts of Hamadan County based on 13 social, economic and cultural indicators. Taxonomic development indicators were used to rank the villages. The study results showed that the villages of Shurin, Gonbad and Cellan had the highest level of development and the villages of Hassanabad, Idehloo and Angelas were the least privileged villages in the county; also, in the evaluation indicators, the rank of each village is different and, in fact, is the result of the sum of the studied indicators. In addition, the study results indicated uncertainty in the existence of a significant relationship between the rank of each village and the indicators; however, the inverse effect of “distance of village from the city” and “the rate of rural development” was confirmed. Therefore, a balanced rural development is expected to be realized in Hamadan County with the increase in the level of services and facilities in less-privileged areas.