Mezei István: Urban development in Slovakia (Pécs-Somorja, 2010)

3. The settlement structure of Slovakia

The settlement structure of Slovakia

Figure 4. Changes in population proportion in the three most typical settlement groups, 1921-2001

Any comparison that we may make shows that the 20th century was one of the most decisive periods of the history of Slovakia, and this can also be observed from the aspect of the settlement structure. The settlement structure of small settlements, which had been typical for centuries, was replaced by an urban settlement structure complemented by the surviving small village environment. Table 14 shows its geographical prevalence.

At a county {kraj) level the geographical location of the settlements shows that most settlements with a low number of inhabitants and small villages can be found in Prešov and Banská Bystrica Counties. This statement is true even if we do not take the eight county towns, among them Bratislava and Košice, the two big cities, into account, because in this case the average population of settlements is as high as 2,366 people, although the population of Bratislava County is considerably smaller. Compared with the Slovak average, Bratislava County turns out to be a densely populated area with several towns. In the case of Košice County the average population of settlements is only 1,208 people, but the averages in the settlements of both Banská Bystrica and Prešov Counties are even lower.

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