Mezei István: Urban development in Slovakia (Pécs-Somorja, 2010)
3. The settlement structure of Slovakia
The settlement structure of Slovakia When the political practice of seeking to achieve a higher level of centralization and the fusion of settlements lost its dominating role, a high number of formerly independent settlements separated from central settlements. This was encouraged by the first administrative measure of the new bourgeois era to restore the independence of settlements. The settlements grasped the opportunity, so they restored their former independence and broke away from the larger settlement, mostly from towns. This was the reason for the increase in the number of settlements in 1991 (by 98 settlements). As a consequence of the withdrawal of communities, several settlements lost a part of their population, and in this way fell into a lower settlement category. The figures of the 2001 census already indicate the new conditions. The changes in the number of settlements that could get rid of the central instructions may be due to the new social and economic conditions. The unchanged number of towns with more than 10,000 inhabitants and the increased number of those with a population of between 500 and 10,000 could be a reaction to the real spatial movements of the society. Table 10, which includes population numbers, explains this phenomenon. Table 10. Population of settlements in Slovakia according to settlement groups (people) Settlement group 1950 1961% 1970 % 1980 % 1991 % 2001 % -199 44,722 32.205 72.0 27.892 86.6 31,393 112.6 43,729 139.3 45,808 104.8 200-499 413,118 331,450 80.2 303,003 91.4 251,267 82.9 284,966 113.4 276,280 97.0 500-999 697,182 727,463 104.3 697,357 95.9 570,284 81.8 554,632 97.3 556,289 100.3 1,000-1,999 768,663 910,762 118.5 904,961 99,4 804.291 88.9 737,614 91.7 767,561 104.1 2,000-4,999 615,768 930,887 151.2 926,372 99.5 830,734 89.7 695,873 83.8 743,307 106.8 5,000-9,999 283,104 382,836 135.2 391,705 102.3 374,260 95.5 346,229 92.5 368,623 106.5 10,000-19,999 222,827 290,098 130.2 317,722 109.5 545,659 171.7 456,958 83.7 460,574 100.8 20,000-49,999 141,572 247,201 174.6 517,896 209.5 589,822 113.9 836,960 141.9 850,194 101.6 50,000-99,999 62,465 79,352 127.0-417,831 640,017 153.2 646,054 100.9 100,000-192,896 241,796 125.4 450,377 186.3 582,627 129.4 677,357 116.3 664,765 98.1 Total number of settlements 3,442,317 4,174,050 121.3 4,537,285 108.7 4,998,168 110.2 5,274,335 105.5 5,379,455 102.0 Source: Štatisticky úrad SR, Pozsony The reasons for the changes in the number of the inhabitants of settlements were different in each era. Due to the settlement policy of the 1950s, there was a decrease in the number of inhabitants of villages with a population of fewer than 500, but in all other types of settlement a considerable increase could be seen. In the 1960s it was only the settlements with more than 5,000 inhabitants where the number of inhabitants increased, which was the first sign of population concentration. According to the 1961 census, the number of inhabitants of the towns with a popu-42
