​Background and objectives: In accordance with the global pattern, the urban population in Iran is higher than the rural population. But, are the statistics of using hospitalization services in public hospitals in these two categories similar to this pattern? This study seeks to determine the effect of place of residence on hospitalization rate by examining annual hospitalization statistics of the country’s biggest referral hospital in the northwest.

Material and Methods: The method used in this study is cross-sectional and all cases of hospitalization in Imam Reza Hospital as the northwest’s biggest referral hospital were picked by available sampling method. The cases of 30260 hospitalized patients were examined through direct observation and items extracted from their files were recorded in the checklist. In order to determine the relations between the variables, K2 test was applied and the P-value was considered less than 0.05 The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS.16 software.

Results: Results indicated that the frequency distribution of patients in terms of their urban or rural residence did not yield any significant difference (P>0/05). Results also showed that the highest hospitalization rate for urban patients was 16.1% (3305 individuals) in surgery ward while it was 14.2% (1384 individuals) for rural patients in orthopedic ward. The least significant statistical difference between urban and rural hospitalization rates was observed in renal ward with 72.9% (1162 individual) urban patients and 27.1% (432 individuals) rural patients of total patients hospitalized in this ward.
The most significant statistical difference between urban and rural hospitalization rates was observed in ICU with 44.9% (297 individuals) urban patients and 55.1% (365 individuals) rural patients of the total patients hospitalized in this ward.

Conclusion: A relative comparison among illnesses in urban and rural populations, aside from illnesses caused by trauma and accidents which were higher in the rural population, showed that they were in accordance with the population and no significant difference was observed. Based on the results of the current study, it is concluded that place of residence does not affect hospitalization rate in public hospitals.