One-Fifth of Iran’s Population are Slum Dwellers

The Deputy Director of Municipal Affairs at the Organization of Municipalities and Rural Districts of Iran announced that one-fifth of Iran’s population are slum dwellers.

According to ISNA, Saeidrezā Jandaghiān said on Tuesday, July 9, that according to official statistics there are approximately 11 million and 370 thousand people, but the actual figures are much higher, and today 16 million, equivalent to one-fifth of the country’s population, are slum dwellers.

Previously, a parliament representative had announced that due to price increases in 2018, a total of one million people were added to Iran’s slum dweller population.

Statistics provided by Iranian officials regarding slums are contradictory. Among these figures, one can cite Rasoul Hazari, a parliament representative, who mentioned the number of Iran’s slum dwellers as 17 million people.

However, in August 2018, Farīd Barāti, Deputy for Prevention and Treatment at the Iran Welfare Organization’s Treatment Center, stated that Iran has “a slum population of 19 million and approximately 3,000 slum areas.”

Despite all the statistical contradictions, what is certain is the increase in the number of slum dwellers in recent years, which official statistics have confirmed.

Also, Saeidrezā Jandaghiān, Deputy Director of Municipal Affairs at the Organization of Municipalities and Rural Districts of Iran, today also referred to a decline of approximately 15 percent in rural gross agricultural production in the agricultural sector of the country and said: the gross output of the agricultural sector resulting from rural areas over the past 25 years has been approximately 25 percent, but this figure had declined to approximately 10.2 percent by the end of 2016.

Source: Voice of America