Introduction: One of the latest issues in the development research is investigation of the poverty causes and alleviation of it. For the poverty alleviation, we have to know about poverty as a phenomena and the factors which affect on it.

  Method: In this paper after measuring the poverty line by using 50% (average) of expenditure and micro data of Household Income- Expenditure Survey 2005 and 2009, the poor and non-poor households are separated. In order to identify the effective factors and their impact on poverty of Iranian urban households, Logit model is estimated with maximum likelihood approach.

  Findings: The study shows that being in poverty is associated with household size, gender of the head and living in the East, the West, and North of Country.

  Conclusion: As a result, education, Being breadwinner and living in the south reduce the probability of being poor.

  JEL Classification: I32, C23, R20.