The Poverty of Iranian Households During the Last Two Decades

The main object of any rational human being is a better standard of living, peace and welfare. Looking at the past, the history of nations around the world shows that most of them have been successful in achieving this goal and the standard of living and welfare of people in most countries has considerably raised. This article seeks to survey the poverty of Iranian households during the last two decades (1983-2003). For this purpose, the authors have gathered and calculated the deflated states of household's expenditure and income published by Iran Statistical Center Yearbooks. The results show that the real consumption of households has decreased during some twenty past years and both rural and urban families have become poorer. Although the Engel's theory indicates that the share of consumed amount of food stuff in the household's budget decreases when the income is increasing, the paper proves that the declining share of expenditure for food of Iranian households is not the evidence of better economic situation.