The feasibility of the realization of the age-friendly city in Iran (Case Study: the city of Boukan)

National population aging is one of the issues that has been taken into consideration in recent years. In this regard, the United Nations also called 1999 the International Year of Older Persons (IYOP). The population aging rate is now higher in the developed countries, but this does not mean that the developing countries do not face this issue. Because of the change in the population pattern in the coming years, there is a potential for population aging in developing countries such as Iran. Despite being one of the very young countries in the world with more than 50% of its population being under twenty years old, Iran will experience a transition phase in the age structure of the population from youth to aged people due to the current population control policies, the promotion of nutrition and health quality and an increase in the life expectancy. In this regard, the head of the Welfare Organization considers the issues regarding the elderly to be very critical and believes that “If you are not already thinking about these issues and the costs involved, in the years to come, even the entire country’s budget will not be enough for the elderly.” Ignoring the situation of the elderly in urban planning is a shortcoming. Therefore, it is imperative that national laws and regulations be established for this purpose. The research method is descriptive-analytical with an applied purpose. In the present research, documentary studies were used to select the indices and theoretical bases. The selected indicators are derived from Zarghani’s study (2015), which is in accordance with WHO criteria. In this research, four major social (10 items), cultural and recreational (10 items), health (7 items) and communication indices (8 items) in the city of Bokan were examined using the Likert scale (complete disagreement to full agreement). The study population consisted of 100 citizens over 40 years of age in Bokan. A 35-item questionnaire was distributed among 154 people over 40 years of age in Bokan, and 100 questionnaires were collected and analyzed. Data was analyzed in SPSS. T-test was used to compare the mean values. Findings show that the average value of all the considered criteria (social, communicative, cultural-recreational and health-care) is lower than the standard. That is, they do not even meet the basic needs of the elderly, which is indicative of a great failure in the related services. Also, the research findings indicate that the status of some of the studied indicators is worse, such as lack of job opportunities for the elderly, lack of suitable space for communication with educational centers (e.g. computers, the Internet, etc.), absence of signs for facilities and services in the elderlies’ homes, the impossibility of free membership of the elderly in all governmental and nongovernmental libraries, absence of shopping malls for the purchase of the elderly, lack of proper physical design of the buildings of physicians, clinics, offices, etc. for the use of the elderly and non-provision of the necessary education to families in the field of self-care and the elderly. The older people in Bokan are mostly disappointed with the above indices. Therefore, future planning must prioritize the welfare of the elderly.