         !  "  #$%&’# ()*+ ,--...#$%&’#/()*+)0      Full Length Research Paper Factors affecting economic prosperity of rural families in the South Khorasan Province (Iran) Seyyed Mohsen Nasiraei 1 , Seyed Jamal F Hosseini 2 * and Homayoun Farhangfar 3 1 Armenia State Agrarian University, Yerevan, Armenia. 2 Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran. 3 Faculty of Agriculture, Birjand University, Birjand, Iran. Accepted 28 May, 2012 The present study was applied in nature and was carried out in a survey method. The purpose of the study was to analyze factors affecting economic prosperity of rural families in the South Khorasan province. The total population of this study was all of the rural families in that province. The information was collected through the questionnaire and was analyzed with a logistic regression model. The results indicated that the probability of economic prosperity was improved by 4.3% per increase by one year. Lack of ownership automobile and telephones by family head brought about a reduction is probability of economic prosperity by about 73 and 65%, respectively. Variation by one degree in the category of routine costs of a family resulted in a promotion by 40% in the probability of economic prosperity of family. Lack of commercial and financial morale among respondents results in decrease of economic prosperity by 52.5%. Key words: Economic prosperity, rural family, South Khorasan, Iran. INTRODUCTION Rural development has been a cornerstone of economic development in developing countries. Although govern- ment of Iran has allocated resources for development of rural areas, but socioeconomic inequality still exists in some of deprived rural areas in country (Hossanei, 2005). A review of the cost of living among urban and rural families is an in indicative of the fact that the standard of living in rural areas has always been lower than urban communities (Iranian Economy Monthly Paper, 2006). Casey foundation (2007) concluded that economic prosperity of rural family as a strategy should be beyond only reduction of poverty and creation of employment. The strategy should consider three major issues of earning, keeping and increasing income. Non farm incomes along with ages, educational level, job status and number of employed family members has been effective factors on economic prosperity of rural population (Mishra and Paudel, 2009). In a research by Oluwasola et al. (2008) amount of crop production per tone, cost of inputs, availability of credit facilities and transportation costs were major income determinants of rural farmers. The results of descriptive statistics and regression analysis suggested that there was a negative statistical relation between net income of farmers and their distance from urban centers though an increase in distance from urban enters was correspondent with an increase in size of cultivation activities. Saving is another important economic factor and studies in some developing countries indicated that poor farmers could have opportunity to have saving, if proper conditions are existed (World Bank, 1995). 12))%+*$’*0 (-,) 3&’ /&4,++%’*’5+)6’(#’)