Comparative analysis of reverse migration (urban-rural)Iran on a provincial scale

Reverse migration refers to the migration from urban areas to rural areas. The census conducted by the statistical center of Iran regarding the immigration from urban to rural areas provide data which actually reflects the total number of immigrants returning from the urban areas to their place of origin, rural areas, together with the immigrants born in the city but immigrated to the villages forever. The purpose of this research is studying and doing comparative analysis of return migration, from urban to rural districts, on the provincial scale based on the descriptive-analytical method. The information required by this research were collected from 2006 & 2016 censuses data, official website of statistical center of Iran. According to the results obtained by the present research, the migration balance between rural and urban areas has resulted in a new equilibrium state in contrast with the decade before that.In terms of volume, the provinces of Tehran, Khorasan Razavi, Mazandaran and Gilan have attracted 33% of the entire reverse migrants. In all provinces of the country, a negative correlation coefficient of 0.477 between the deprivation index and the ratio of reverse migrants than the rural population, has shown that the provinces with more deprived rural areas in terms of environmental, social, economic, have fewer reverse migrants..Finally, ARC and GIS software indicate that the spatial interactions throughout the country in terms of return migration is very strong in favor of densely populated cities of northern Gilan, Mzandaran, Bushehr and to some extent around the metropolises of Tehran, Mashhad, Ghom, as well as Semnan, Yazd and Ilam. Therefore, in the spatial planning for the Iranian regions, the rural districts in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Zanjan, Kurdistan, North Khorasan and Hormozgan are of a higher priority.