SETTLEMENT REGIONS OF HUNGARY IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY
Abstract
The settlement system of Hungary (Carpathian Basin) was really complex in the early 20th century. The average size and density of villages and towns and the percentage of outskirt population had great regional variety. We could use the data of 1910 Hungarian census (the last one with uniform data collecting system and method) to specify the settlement regions, regions with almost uniform settlement structure. There were 12418 villages and 123 towns in Hungary in 1910 excluding Croatia-Slavonia. The population of the villages was 14.52 million, the average population of a village was 1169 person. 1.47 million people (10.8%) lived at the outskirts of the villages. The population of the towns was 3,7 million in 1910 (average population: 30300 persons), the percentage of outskirt population in the towns was 13.2. We could specify 36 settlement regions in Hungary, even these regions are really different in size (40-3500 villages, area: 600-75.000 km2, population: 25.000-3.5 million). These regions are not entirely homogenous and also the borderline between them sometimes not a strict line even a zone of transition. There are some regions with dominantly small villages (Western-Hungary, Western and Eastern Slovakia, Hunedoara in Transylvania) and on the other side with large villages (Great Hungarian Plain (Alföld), Bačka Region, Budapest Agglomeration, Jiu-valley). We can find large outskirt population at the Alföld, mountainous regions, Transdanubia and industrial regions with various types. Finally we could combine the average village size and the percentage and type of outskirt population and we could specify 15 settlement region types. The largest groups are the regions with small villages and low outskirt population and the regions with medium-sized villages with large or above average outskirt population (5-6 regions). There were several changes in the settlement system of the Carpathian Basin during the 20th century, but because of the different data system of different countries (different administrative structure, different definition of villages, outskirts, etc.) it is impossible to specify settlement regions of nowadays with such a uniform method.
