The issue of quality of life has found a growing place in the field of urban and regional studies in recent decades. Although many studies have tried to investigate the subjective and objective aspects of quality of life especially in the urban and rural contexts, a few studies focused on regional levels. Therefore there is a necessity for these kinds of researches to assess the quality of life conditions in the specific territory. The main objective of this article is to investigate spatial patterns of the regional quality of life (RQoL) in Iran using objective indicators, over the period of 15 years. In this way, the changing process of objective quality of life will be investigated. Using descriptive— analytics and comparative method of research, five factors including economic-cultural, political-institutional, socio-geographic, health and infrastructure were extracted and analyzed using principle component analysis and composite index. The temporal analysis shows that from 1996 to 2011, RQoL in Iran has significantly increased in all regions; and economic factor considered as a main reason for this positive change; the results show that Tehran has the high quality of life conditions amongst the regions. Isfahan and Khuzestan are in a very good state. Also, the QoL in the western regions increased significantly faster than eastern regions. Sixty-five percent of regions have improved in quality of life with a moderate fluctuation rate. Although, the level of regional homogeneity has gradually increased over the course of 15 years, but RQoL does not show a specific central or scattered pattern, demonstrating a random scattering in Iran territory.
