The phenomenon of an increasing elderly population is one of the most significant economic, social, and health challenges of the 21st century. This paper is provided to target spatial analysis of demographic indicators of the elderly in the neighborhoods of Ghaemshahr.
The research method of the present study is descriptive-analytic and based on the purpose applied. The raw data was extracted from statistical blocks of the city of Ghaemshahr in 2010 and 2015. To investigate the status of the elderly in the 20 neighborhoods of Ghaemshahr city, indicators of the elderly ratio, elderly dependency ratio, elderly index, and aging index were studied. For spatial analysis of elderly population indicators, Arc Gis software was used and methods of hot spots and spatial autocorrelation moran were utilized.
By studying the age pyramid of Ghaemshahr City from 2010 to 2015, it was determined that the elderly population ratio has increased in comparison with other age groups in the recent period. Neighborhoods 2, 18, 9, and 3 respectively had the highest rates of growth in the elderly population from 2010 to 2015. The growth rate of the elderly population of the total city is also 4.18 percent.
The studied indexes show a cluster spatial pattern in the city and their values are higher in the central neighborhoods in comparison with those in the peripheral neighborhoods. According to the research findings, it is essential that urban managers and policymakers consider the spatial distribution of the elderly in the planning process.