Measuring Inclusive Development in Iran (1981-2016)

The concept of "inclusive development" has been expanded with the aim of placing special emphasis on the social and political aspects of development. In explaining this concept, the focus of how well-being is distributed to different sections of society, especially disadvantaged groups and social minorities (such as youth, women, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, etc.), is at stake. The purpose of the present study is to provide an index for evaluating the inclusiveness of development in Iran in the post-revolutionary years (1981-2016). This study, using statistical data based on the method of constructing composite indices, has prepared a development index consisting of 5 dimensions and 10 components for measuring the status of development inclusiveness in Iran. The results show that the inclusive development index has improved over the past three decades, but the trend has stopped over the past decade. This finding may indicate that the development trends in the country are unstable and reversible. These results also indicate that over the past decade, the divergence between economic growth trends and other development variables is increased, so it has led to destruction of the environment, decrease in social cohesion and overall decline in inclusiveness.