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The first stage in planning for regional development is identifying the current situation of regions. This identification
entails an analysis of economic, social, and cultural aspects of those regions. Before appropriating grants and resourses among the regions and provinces, identification (or determination) of the position of each province among the others and ranking them in respect of the degree of development is necessary. There are different ways or m,ethods for ranking economic, social, and cultural development degrees. However not all of
them result the same. One of these methods is Taxonomy
Analysis which determines the level of development by integrating various criterions or indicators this study, considering
province as region, studies the 26 provinces separately in issues of housing, education, comnlUnicatioll, and health, and gives each one a rank. The results showes that in terms of education Gilan occupies the first place, regarding health Semnan is on the top, in respect of housing Tehran, and communications section Yazd ranks first.