Comparative Study of Regional Development in Tehran and Sistan and Baluchestan

The purpose of this article is to identify and analyze the extent of regional differences in terms of human development and economic development indices. In this study, the level of national-regional development in the two provinces of Tehran and Sistan and Baluchestan is measured by the above two indices to highlight discrepancies in regional development in Iran. In this applied research, a descriptive-analytical method has been adopted. The research data were obtained from the official Census of 2011 as well as the last official Census in 2016. The economic index was measured by Izard model and the conclusions were informed by the human development index. The results manifest that the studied indices have been affected by geographical factors and micro/macro policies of the government in the four decades since the 1979 Revolution, contributing to the widening of regional development gap. The HDI was 0.720 in Tehran and 0.494 in Sistan and Baluchestan. Also, the per capita income index of Tehran and Sistan and Baluchestan were 0.497 and 269.0, respectively, which indicates a marked difference. As for the average years of study, the index of Tehran (0.780) was nearly two-fold higher than that of Sistan and Baluchestan (0.439). However, the life expectancy index exhibited a smaller difference than the overall average. The results of the research based on the Izard model also demonstrate that Tehran and Sistan and Baluchestan with an average of 126% and 172% in economic sectors are above the national average (112%), the only difference being that the development process in Sistan and Baluchestan is changing rapidly.