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

4. Towns in Slovakia after 1993

Towns in Slovakia after 1993

the leaders had spent time, money and energy on urban development and, by developing the infrastructure and business parks and designating marketable lands and buildings, prepared the town for receiving economic units, the gradually increasing economic growth attracted families that were seeking jobs and wanted to make a living. A town that had adjusted itself to the post-industrial conditions had a better chance to participate in the increasing competition of towns for inhabitants.

Figure 12. Degree of urbanization in individual districts (Level NUTS 4)

1 - 100 %; 2 - 60-99 %; 3 - 50-59 %; 4 - 40-49 %; 5 - under 40 %

Source: Štatisticky úrad SR, Bratislava

The degree of urbanization of the individual administrative districts can be seen in Figure 12. The 100% urbanization of Bratislava and Košice is easy to understand; what is more, in Slovak administration these two towns are subdivided into further districts.

In the country there are 11 districts where the proportion of the urban population within the district is over 60%. Banská Bystrica, Poprad and Martin are towns with more than 60,000 inhabitants, so they are actually the leading towns of their district, but Myjava, with its 18,160 inhabitants, or Banská Štiavnica, with its 10,662 inhabitants, belong to this category only because of the internal population proportions of their small district.

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