About 20m People Living in Slums, Suburbs

Around 20 million people are living in slums and suburbs (marginal settlements), according to Majlis Development Commission’s spokesperson.
“We need one million housing units to be produced annually, but housing production is about 300,000 units per year, which indicate that we have a shortage of 700,000 housing units per year,” Abdul Jalal Iri was also quoted as saying by HIBA, the news portal of Maskan Bank.
He added that to overcome the shortage, four million housing units are needed to be built.
“Slum dwellings account for 18% of urban residential areas in Iran; they include more than 2,800 neighborhoods,” says Moslem Seyyedalhosseini, a member of the board of directors of Urban Regeneration Corporation of Iran.
“Thirty percent of the country’s urban population live in slum areas and face numerous challenges and problems. In recent years, the number of people living in suburban slums has doubled,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA.  
Noting that one-third of the country’s population lives in big cities, the official said, “More than 31.5% of the population lived in cities up until five decades ago. Today, urbanites constitute 74% of the population.”