Evaluating the Effect of Government Population Policies on the Stability of Rural Settlements (Case Study: Kerman County)

Undoubtedly, the most important population issue in the rural areas of developing countries, such as Iran, is the depopulation of rural areas. Population stability is the result of growth of global awareness about the environmental, social, economic, poverty, inequality and concerns about a healthy future for humankind. Consequently, the present work investigates the effect of government population policies on the population stability of rural areas around Kerman city. The method of this investigation is the descriptive-analytical and its tool is the self-made questionnaire and excel software. The method of data collection is as the survey and documentary. FAHP and FVICOR models are used for analyzing obtained data. According to the obtained results from the used models and among the investigated factors, the maximum and minimum weights are assigned to the social factor with the weight of 0.562 and the economical factor with the weight of 0.190, respectively. Based on this, it can be concluded that the social criterion has the most important effect among the influential factors. In the implemented prioritization of the villages, the highest rank in the terms of three factors is assigned to Qanatghista and Arababad villages and also, the lowest rank is assigned to Sekeng village. It seems that the government's population policies have been effective in the stability of population of the mentioned villages, however, these have not been impressive in the other villages.