The deputy minister of Roads and Urban Development of the Islamic Republic announced that about 15 percent of the country’s urban population lives in informal settlements.

Abdolreza Golpayegani, referring to the growing trend of migration to metropolitan areas, including cities around the capital, attributed widespread migrations to a lack of job opportunities and welfare facilities in the provinces of origin.

Earlier, the Mehr News Agency, in a report, had announced that about 20 million people of Iran’s urban population live in informal settlements.

ISNA also, on May 15, reported that in large cities and provincial capitals, between 50 and 70 percent of household income is spent on rent.

Based on the report of this state-affiliated news agency, the increase in rents—especially in big cities—has led to migration to the outskirts of cities and an increase in informal settlements, pit-dwelling, and the expansion of unsafe settlements in different parts of the country.