History and Objectives: Due to different reports of prevalence of goiter in most parts of the country and their consequences and lack of an exact and general statistics regarding spread of the disease in Kashan, the present study was carried out.

Materials and Methods: A descriptive study was designed on 3130 male and female students. Individuals were selected from 30 schools from rural (10 primary, 4 intermediate and 4 high schools) and urban (5 primary, 3 intermediate and 2 high schools) regions. Random samples were taken from classes and personal specificities such as age, sex, level of education, school performance, place of residence, parents’ occupation and number of family members were recorded. Clinical examination of individuals was carried out by Bimanual method according to the WHO guidelines. Based on the information recorded, the type of goiter was classified. The prevalence of goiter was extrapolated to the population.

Results: From total of 3130 individuals studies 2548 (51.3% males and 48.6% females) were from urban and 582 (58.7% males and 41.3% females) were from rural regions and the prevalence of goiter was 47%. The prevalence among males and females were 59.1% and 40.9% respectively. The prevalence of goiter was 45.7% and 52% in urban and rural regions respectively. The prevalence of goiter among the students of elementary, intermediate and high school were 40.4%, 50.9% and 54.7% respectively. The age group of 16-17 has the highest rate of goiter (62.2%) with type Ib with 28.4% rate of prevalence and the type of goiter was type III with 0.3% rate of prevalence. The prevalence of goiter among students with good, fair and poor academic performance was 32.2%, 50% and 70% respectively. The rate goiter prevalence was higher among males compare to females.

Conclusion: In light of hyperendemicity of goiter in dessert area and inconsistency of prevalence with age and sex, further investigation on causes and underlying factors need to be carried out.