The settlement system of Hungary

Abstract

The stock, network and system of settlements are characterized by many factors, for example geography, history, so we have to face problems, which are hardly to list. One of them is the relatively low level of urbanization in comparison to other European or developed countries. That points on a long term handicap of Hungary’s settlement network: few, small cities, weak citizenship from the Middle Age until now. The dramatic change of boundaries after World War I caused broken city-countryside regions along the new borders. The 20th century could not solve the problem of lacking centers, neither the National Concept of Settlement Network Development from 1971, nor the last decades’ policy of promoting towns, because we have inner peripheries too, small regions without town. To my opinion, it seems to be crucial to reshape the public administration to create an effective spatial system with clear situations from the point of view of the hierarchy too.

The demographic processes (analyzed on the basic of the latest census of 2011) show a dark future: only on tenth of the settlements have more inhabitants as in 2001, and the most of them are situated in the agglomeration of Budapest or some large cities on the one hand and on the other: further marginalizing despite of growing population, the case of Third World.