Today, it is evident that in order to achieve development we need proper planning, because development without proper planning would lead to unbalanced development of economic, social and ecological sectors and also exacerbates regional imbalance, ultimately weakening and undermining national unity. In fact planning is a tool through which all the activists and governments try to manage the process of development in a controlled manner. In the aftermath of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, when the disturbances of the imposed war were overcome, given the necessity to develop the country, the First Five-Year Development Plan was launched in 1989, which was followed by two other five-year development plans. Currently the Fourth Five-Year Development Plan is being implemented. Despite the implementation of three five-year development plans, still we have some unprivileged and undeveloped regions in Iran. Hence the question that arises is whether the pace of development – "measured on the basis of improvement in development level in provinces of Iran in later years of a plan compared to the first years of same plan" – has been positive for all the provinces?
The main thrust of the present article is to find an answer to the said question through an analytical-descriptive approach. The results of the research show that after the implementation of any one of the three development plans, the pace of development in all provinces of Iran was not the equal.