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One of the most important issues which has been of interest for scholars during the past decades is sustainable rural development and its concerning discussions. Social sustainability as the key aspect of sustainable development is of critical importance to sustainable rural development. Bringing social sustainability issues into focus in the present century has made an opportunity for achieving the goals of sustainable development. This aspect of sustainable development can be discussed in detail by introducing social sustainability measures. Hence, a variety of factors affects social sustainability owing to its importance. Given the complexity and diversity of social sustainability measures and their central role in rural areas, special attention needs to be devoted to it. The measures have their own importance in addressing social sustainability issues. They are also referred to as forward-looking strategies as policy-makers and decision-makers identify their strengths and weaknesses. On the other hand, they are highly effective in appropriate planning and resource allocation. In the present paper, the criteria affecting social sustainability were collected and categorized by reviewing previous studies and utilizing experts' ideas and with regard to the objectives of the 5th Plan of Development. On this basis, the social sustainability criteria in Iranian rural areas included eight criteria: security, population, social collaboration, health, leisure, employment, education, and safety, each of which had some sub-criteria for the assessment of social sustainability and unsustainability.

Rural economy has an important role in rural sustainable development in every region or country. However, the rural economy in Iran is too much depending on agriculture and development of other rural economy in particular nonfarm activities, has been neglected by Iranian rural communities. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify the role of non-farm business on rural sustainable development in Sanandaj Township. This study was a type of surveying research and employed both questionnaire and interview tools. A four-part questionnaire (with 48 questions) was developed in order to collect data from the respondents. Likert-type responses with five scales were used to assess different sections of the questionnaires. The questionnaires’ reliability was tested by Cronbach’s Alpha technique and it was 76% (α= 0.76). A number of 279 families, 181 families with and 98 without non-farm business were selected randomly in 2011. Results of the study showed that non-farm business can contribute to employment growth, income generating, and prevent seasonal and permanent migration from rural areas. Based on the results, non-farm business and non-farm industries need to be strongly invested by financial facilities through rural cooperatives and unions. Additionally, encouraging rural participation is essential in non-farms and industrial activities.