The growth of towns and villages in Iran, 1900–66

Abstract

Little information is readily available on the growth of towns and villages in Iran during the twentieth century. Before the first national census of 1956, population statistics were mainly a matter of conjecture and the total inhabitants of individual towns, though often 'guestimated' by their respective municipal officials, were rarely published. There was knowledge of internal movements of population, but no attempts were made to quantify these movements. Most discussions on the subject were vague and until recent years often implied that the movements were solely unidirectional between rural and urban places. The purpose of this paper is to construct an outline of the rural/urban structure of population growth in Iran during the period 1900-66. The results to be presented include an estimation of the urban and rural components of total population for each year in the period, the size distribution of towns and villages at intervals throughout the period, and a quantitative analysis of internal migration of population.